Review of American Hustle (2013) by Franz H — 15 Nov 2015

Objectively, this was an incredible film. Based on a true life FBI scam (called "ABSCAM") in the late 70's. A couple of con men get caught by the FBI, and then accept an offer to work for the FBI to catch corrupt officials in the act in exchange for immunity.

And Christian Bale's performance was just incredible. After his very poor portrayal of Batman in Dark Knight, and others, I figured him to be nothing more than a lightweight whose looks carry him.

But in fact he did an incredible acting job here. And the rest of the cast was excellent all around. Surprisingly good. Great plot, awesome musical score, great photography, just incredibly well designed.

But subjectively, it got boring and it was much too long (over 2 hours). It's a great character study, but there's only so much character study you can take without nodding off. They desperately need to cut 1/2 hour from the film and it would be much better.

Otherwise, it was one of the best made films in recent memory.