Ryan McNeil
At one point during her bombshell performance as Rosalyn Jennifer Lawrence points out how many of the best perfumes in the world smell beautiful but are laced with something nasty. There’s something to the sourness of it that brings out the greater sweetness she suggests. The film around her uses that as a metaphor for the actions of some rather deplorable people – all of whom are true artists at immorality. They’re so dazzling at the art that we almost forget about the immorality…so sweet, that we overlook the nasty.
AMERICAN HUSTLE begins by introducing us to Irving and Sydney (Christian Bale and Amy Adams). When they meet Sydney is working her way up the ranks at Cosmo magazine and Irving professes to run a handful of dry cleaners while dealing in art. It’s all a front though, and when he sees that Sydney is trustworthy enough he lets her in on his true racket: conning financially strapped suckers out of their cash. Not only is Sydney not put-off by her paramour’s dirty dealings, she actually finds ways to contribute and take the game to another level.
Unfortunately, that level pulls them into the path of FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). During a sting he has enough evidence to arrest Sydney but not enough to get Irving. In an attempt to up the stakes Richie offers a deal: if Sydney and Irving work with him to land four bigger fish, he will let them walk.
The agreement begins to circle an easily corrupted politician named Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) whose ambition to better his New Jersey town clouds his moral judgement. Soon the trio have Polito accepting large-scale bribes and involving other bureaucrats, all champing at the bit to leave a legacy behind and do something great for their constituency.
Meanwhile, circling the edge of the dancefloor is Irving’s wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence). While Sydney may have Irving’s eye, Rosalyn still has his heart, and more importantly his son. With that she remains a player in all of this, and a true wild card in a very high-stakes game.
Midway through AMERICAN HUSTLE Irving and Richie are examining a Rembrandt in an art gallery. Irving points out that it’s a fake, and such a good fake that it’s believed to be the real deal. He then asks who the true genius is; the painter, or the forger? You have to weep for humanity when a talented fraud is celebrated for his talent, instead of being decried as a fraud. That’s not to say that what Irving suggests is false – far from it. The fact is that for a long time now society has celebrated and elevated people who act important over those that actually are important. As the saying goes, “If you can’t do it, fake it.”. It’s ass backwards, but the fact that we as a society idolize the fashionable and the fraudulent explains why it doesn’t take much to turn the average person into a crook.
Ask yourself, if you became friends with someone who seemed to have it all and they invited you in on the game, how long would it take to jump in?
This is how an average person like Sydney can be seduced by a balding, overweight, playboy like Irving. This is how a mid-level agent of the law can get into bed with a low level player in the hopes of making a big collar. This is how an honest bureaucrat like Polito can step outside the political process to achieve his goals for his community. And this is how a go-getting woman like Sydney can be seduced by a fraud. The carrot of having it all is dangled – how can they not take a nibble?
That’s what sets AMERICAN HUSTLE apart from its obvious influences; it’s less interested in the downfall of the crooked than it is on the seduction that sets them on the path in the first place. In a way, much of it can be summed up by Richie who keeps hearing a fable from his superior officer in bits. He can never pay attention long enough to get to the moral of the story. That’s us: we see the beautiful, the rich, the famous, and the infamous and aren’t interested in how they got to where they are. We just want to know where we can buy the shoes they’re wearing.
The film actually takes pride in describing intricate, elaborate cons, often using the term “building it from the feet up”. It romanticizes the heist, almost to the point where we forget that it is a heist! We’re pulling for philanderers, corrupt officials, crooks, hangers on and embezzlers. Like them, we are seduced by the glamour of being a criminal.
All of the characters in AMERICAN HUSTLE are gaming the system for various reasons- respect, money, power, or some screwed-up notion of love. All of them believe that there’s a nobility in what they do, especially Polito and Richie who are doing what they do for “a greater good”.
In the end, none of them are artists, they are all just talented frauds.
The themes and metaphors in this are definitely emphasized again and again…and again throughout the movie. I guess my qualms is that it just seems all over the place then sloppily ties the loose ends of the plot together at the end. I wish I had loved it 🙁
I love that this conversation is spanning across both our spaces – moments like this are why I love being part of a bigger community.
For me the film felt more like it was about an attitude (as I obviously harp on) than it was about a specific series of events. So in a way, I found myself more drawn in by the way it told its story, rather than the story it was telling.