Tonight was an adventure, to say the least. Once the movie was out, I went to my van only to discover that it would not start. I asked for assistance from multiple people, but no one could give me a boost - not even the maintenance staff or a taxi driver. Finally, after almost an hour of running around, looking for help, a very kind man had jumper-cables and helped me start my car! Yay for nice middle-aged men! Here's some advice; if you live in a cold area, keep a pair of jumper-cables in your vehicle at all times. Even if you won't need them, you never know when someone might ask for a boost.
Anyway, on to discuss American Hustle. I have so much to say about this film. I went into the theatre not really knowing what to expect. I had heard great reviews of it from everyone, except from one person; that one person was probably the most excited to see this movie, so to hear she didn't like it surprised me and caused me to doubt the opinion I had develop based on the previews I had seen. I also am NOT a fan of Bradley Cooper, so I wasn't too excited to see him in this. However, I now see why they chose him for that role. He suited that character very well (although, with that being said, it makes me dislike him as an actor even more than before) and he did a great job playing it out.
The Movie starts out with a middle-aged man putting on his toupee. As I watched him doing so, I couldn't help but wonder, "is that Christian Bale??" and, sure enough, it was! I had forgotten he was in this, so I was pleasantly surprised!! He is almost unrecognizable! The only reason I was able to tell it was him is because he has a very distinctive mouth; his teeth rest against his upper lip in a unique way. Yes, I notice things about a person's face. Anyway, his voice, body shape, everything was completely different! But, man, did he do a fantastic job in this film! He made up for having to see so much of Bradley Cooper,to be honest. I had to keep telling myself that the over-weight older man was Christian Bale! I still have trouble believing it.
Amy Adams, the leading lady of the film, is Bale's love interest and oh my goodness gracious, do they make a cute couple!! I don't normally make such girly remarks, but seriously, they are just adorable on screen!! I have never seen such chemistry between two people in a movie before! Also, as a side-note, American Hustle did the one sex-scene in the most tasteful way possible. They never showed any nudity, but it was definitely heavily implied, and you for sure knew what was happening. However, it was very brief, and very modest (as modest as a modern-day sex-scene can be, that is). I was thoroughly impressed with that. But, anyway, most adorable on-screen couple award, hands-down!
Another thing I would like to mention is Adams' performance. I recently took a theatre course and was taught that you need to change your whole body (how you walk, move, carry yourself, etc) to properly play a different character. Although this is what is taught to a theatre student, and I would assume actors/actresses would know this as well, I hardly ever see anyone actually change their natural movements. Adams, however, is different. I've seen her in plenty of films, as well as interviews and other such things, so I know fairly well how she moves and carries herself. She had a completely different way of walking in American Hustle than I had ever seen her do before. She moved the way Sydney Prosser move. Not only that, but Sydney Prosser moved the way Lady Edith would move. That's another thing I wanted to point out; Adams wasn't just doing the role of Sydney, but she was also doing the role of Sydney, who was doing the role of Lady Edith. She had to do two characters at one time! Of course, similar characters have been done that way before, but Adams did such a phenomenal job at it that I often forgot that, when she was being Sydney, she was being the real character. Lady Edith was so believable, so convincing, that she fooled even myself.
Now to discuss the more indepth parts of the film. The soundtrack is, if I may quote my friend, Joel, "...phenomenal. Never has a soundtrack added more to a film...First-time rating: 8/10." Whoever scored this movie is a genius and I hope he scores more movies I plan to see in the future. Everything was beautifully picked and placed, smoothly edited and worked wonderfully with what was happening while it played. It was perfect.
I was quite intrigued with how the narration/backstory of the characters was displayed. All three main characters where the narrators and, even though the story jumped around between the three of them for the first little bit of the film, it was very easy to follow, and very entertaining. I have never seen a narration like that before. Most films I've seen with similar methods usually have a scene and then go into a flash-back or something, but this one, instead, took a scene and broke it in two. In the middle of the scene, a voice-over narration began before the camera shoots to before Irving (Bale) and Sydney (Adams) met. It later goes back to the split scene (once the audience is all caught-up with the characters and their back-stories) and the story goes on from there. I have NEVER seen that done before, and it was done wonderfully!
I want to say they used a filter over the camera lens to make the film look more of a genuine movie of the 70's (which is the decade it's based in), but I can't be sure. The screen just seemed to have a filmy kind of look to it. If that was intentional, I think that's a great way to further display the story's date. Although, it could have just been the projector.
This was a very good movie, in my opinion. I was so engulfed in it that I verbally, and sometimes even physically, reacted to anything and everything that happened - that's how you know I'm really into what I'm watching. It was quite funny, actually. There were these two guys sitting behind me and every time I saw Cooper and Adams characters being too friendly with one another, I made an involuntary disgusted noise. They laughed at me for that. They also seemed to find my body-movements amusing as well; like, when something intense was about to happen, I would cover my face and whisper something to myself, and I would hear them snickering immediately after. Not that I minded, of course. I'm sure I'm very entertaining to watch during a movie, sometimes. I'm glad I could provide them with some amusement.
Joel tweeted after seeing this, "Whilst it's intelligent, it isn't too confusing. Very well written, exciting idea. Times of poignancy and genuine tension," and he couldn't be more right.
I give American Hustle 9.5 out of 10 (it would have been 10 out of 10 if it weren't for Bradley Cooper).
p.s. follow Joel on Twitter @JDunnWilson and on YouTube.
