American Hustle (2013) 7/10

Starring : Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence
Director : David O Russell
Running Time : 138 mins

When con artists Irving Rosenfeld (Bale) and Sydney Prosser (Adams) are caught by the FBI, agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper) cuts them a deal that requires them to help the FBI catch those accepting their crooked deals. Their primary target: Carmine Polito (Renner), a New Jersey mayor who they plan to entrap by offering him donations in return for him helping to grant citizenship to an Arab Sheikh, but things fall apart when Irving’s wife Rosalyn (Lawrence) opens her big mouth...

This movie is basically a fun heist movie in reverse, with the main characters trying to give away the money to catch crooked politicians and the like. The story starts off strong, but falls apart in some ways with them trying to catch these guys out with a fake Sheikh offering money in return for citizenship. The performances were pretty strong, and Lawrence’s house-cleaning to Live And Let Die was fun, but this could have been better.

You’ll like this if you liked : Ocean’s Eleven