While "American Hustle" has some nice performances, I was very surprised how unexcited I was watching this film. After all, around Oscar time, this was THE film that all the hype seemed to be about and the movie hadn't even debuted yet!! Critics were abuzz and the film got all the major nominations--Best Picture, Best Director, all the acting awards and four other nominations! If I were to create a list of most overrated films of all time, I would include this one simply because of all this hype. No film could be as good as this hype would indicate...and it wasn't.
The movie is a HIGHLY fictionalized retelling of the Abscam affair where the FBI caught a lot of politicians on tape taking bribes. The ending, in particular, is pure Hollywood, not fact. But, instead of focusing mostly on the scam, the film tends to glamorize the characters involved in putting over this sting--the confidence people as well as the FBI.
So why was I so underwhelmed by the film? The biggest reason is that I didn't like any of the people. And, oddly, the one I liked the most was the mayor (Jeremy Renner) caught up in the scandal. Any film about Abscam, even one as fictional as this one, needs to show bad people-- this didn't bother me. But the film so glamorized them and was all about them--and this left me flat.
A few other things bothered me a bit. First, the f-word was not THAT commonly used in the 70s like it is used today. Historically, this is inaccurate, as it was used something like 27102391294 times. Second, while I liked the period music (as well as some new music by Jeff Lynne that sounded period), it was often too invasive--like a music video.
In closing, I think if the film had never been hyped, I might have enjoyed it a lot more and scored it higher.
