American Hustle

[bklynred]

It definitely dragged in the middle, and was derivative of Goodfellas. I liked it, enjoyed it but didn't love it. That's enough though. Bale delivered because that's what Bale does (for me). I loved Bradley Cooper's character, his meltdowns were outrageous.

ETA: IMDb has some interesting trivia. A lot of this was improvised, which explains a lot; some of the more volatile/crazy moments seemed really wild to be scripted.

[groovethang]

I think the first poster in this thread summed up my feelings on the movie very well. I enjoyed it but didn't love it. Did think Christian Bale and Amy Adams were fantastic, though! Bradley Cooper at the end, when he was making fun of Louis CK's character, was hilarious.

[sjankis630]

I see that Jennifer Lawrence got nominated, I just don't see it in this movie. Her part was not really even central to the movie, but there you go.

[sugarhigh]

This movie was boring and pointless, I fell asleep halfway through. And Jennifer Lawrence was too young again for her role in yet another film. I'm glad Amy Adams is getting some recognition though.

[jynni]

I thought Jennifer's character was supposed to be young. It was mentioned more than once during the film. She might have been too young for her character in Silver Linings (which I thought acting-wise she pulled off well, she just didn't look old enough) but I thought her age was spot on for her character here.

[Deleted]

Agreed. Bale's character talks about her being a young single mother when he met her, and I got the impression that he enjoyed rescuing her in some respects. And she was written as being somewhat immature and naive (i.e. the way she went on and on about the damn nail polish and her ignorance about how dangerous it is to fuck around with gangsters) so her age didn't bother me here.

I'm torn about this movie. I like all of the people involved, just not so much the movie itself. So I'm conflicted about all the awards love it's gotten so far and will likely continue to get.

[atwood]

I went into this movie having heard that it was heavier on characters (and caricatures) than on plot.I'd mostly heard about it on ONTD and the party line there is that it is a awful movie with horrible acting. I found it surprisingly riveting and the acting was superb. Even Bradley Cooper, who I loathe, was really good. I still loathed his character, but I'm pretty sure I was supposed to.

[Ninja Bunny]

I absolutely loved it. atwood I too found it riveting, I was hooked from beginning to end. Unraveling all of the layers - a con within a con within a con - was such fun.

I heard it was good and when I read the synopsis it looked like interesting but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Everyone turned in a great performance and Jennifer Lawrence's nomination made sense to me. Her single mother character have easily been a cookie-cutter character but she wasn't, far from it. Her dinner with the mobster was the hinge moment of the film and her conversation with her husband where she asks for divorce was a terrific performance.

I remember hearing "ABSCAM" in the news when I was a little kid but didn't know what it was. I thought it was some murky political or financial scandal involving the Middle East somehow. Until recently I had no idea it was about Jersey politics.

When I see a microwave oven I now want to call it a "science oven." I also want to know how the ice fishing story ended.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

I don't know what it is about David O. Russell, but his movies sort of leave me cold. I felt the same way about American Hustle as I did about Silver Linings Playbook: very well acted, nicely directed...but something about them falls flat. I didn't connect with either film on an emotional level.

Amy Adams, though, was fantastic. She deserves all the recognition. Lawrence not so much.

[sobe]

I've never paid much attention to Jeremy Renner (can't recall seeing any of his films, never took much interest in him off screen), but his performance was my favorite in the movie. It felt the least hammy, to me, and I ended up caring about Carmine more than anyone else.