Road to the Oscars: Day Two (American Hustle)

Some of this actually happened.

American Hustle confuses me. Before trying to write this I went and read some other critics reviews because I wasn't one hundred per cent sure how I felt about it. What I found was everything from blatant hatred for the film to those who couldn't praise it high enough. Obviously the Academy agrees more with the latter, or it wouldn't be nominated for ten Oscars at the upcoming ceremony, one of which is 'Best Picture'. 

I have to admit, the film surprised me when I first watched it. The trailer hadn't done it any favours and there were honestly only five reasons I went to see it: Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. I definitely hadn't expected a comedy. Did anyone? A comedy about government corruption in the 70s? But I did laugh a lot throughout the film. Admittedly it was mostly laughter about the state of Christian Bale's body and Bradley Cooper's hair but there were definitely other funny parts too. Jennifer Lawrence dancing to 'Live and Let Die' certainly springs to mind. 

I agree a lot with what critic David Thompson had to say about the film in his review. Firstly, the film goes for 129 minutes, which Thompson believes is "29 minutes too long". There were many parts that they could have cut out, all of which while slightly amusing or interesting, did not add to the story at all. Secondly, he says that "one could be forgiven for thinking that the entire movie is an opportunity for these actors to read an outline of script and take it from there" and that it could easily be seen as an "after-hours jam session" for the actors. I can't help but agree. The performances were great, but it seemed too easy in some parts and a lot of the script could be called 'monotonous' without hearing any arguments from me. 

I could see it winning the Oscar for Best Costume Design, because it was pretty amazing, but if it was up to me, that would be the only one. With all that said, it definitely deserves to be on the list of the top nine films for the last year, it just won't win Best Picture.