American Hustle

Saw this at Cinetopia last night in the small theater: 18 seats. This image was on a huge screen maybe twelve feet from our seats. We got there early because we wanted to get some dinner before the show started, so I had plenty of time to study it and I noticed a couple of things. One is that names at the top are not in the same order as the people in the picture. Christian Bale is in the center, Bradley Cooper is on the right, Jeremy Renner is on the left, Amy Adams is between Jeremy and Christian and Jennifer Lawerence is the blond on the right.
    The second is that everyone except Christian seems to looking right at you, but Christian is looking over the tops of our heads into the distance. I had a hard time recognizing Christian Bale. The role that sticks in my mind is the anorexic lead in The Machinist. Here he is overweight and bald with a hairpiece and an absurd comb-over.  He's really unattractive. I don't understand how he can apparently gain and lose weight at will.
    This movie was a little odd. There was nothing enjoyable about it but I loved it anyway. The characters are all pretty horrible, you wouldn't want to have anything to do with any of them unless they were your friends. You might have some friends like these guys.
    I had a similar feeling about the soundtrack. It was a little odd as well. The songs are all from the 70's and 80's, and they were all recognizable, but there weren't any hard rock hits, it was other stuff. Some of it was okay, but there wasn't much in there that was really my style. I looked at some of theYouTube music videos for some of these songs and I was surprised that no one had done anything with the songs from ELO (Electric Light Orchestra). The only ones I saw had static images. There might be some of live concerts, but that doesn't interest me.
     The movie is loosely based on the real events of the ‘Abscam’ plot by the FBI to take down the corrupt members of congress in the 70′s. I remember hearing about it, I think it got more press than the moon landing, but I didn't pay too much attention. Some members of congress corrupt? That's not news. Show me some members of Congress who aren't corrupt, that would be newsworthy. 'Course you can't prove a negative.
    What makes this movie special is the way the relationships between the people are portrayed, especially the attraction between Irving (Christian Bale) and Lady Edith (Amy Adams). There are all kinds of little bits in there that are just weird, and several lines that will stick in your head. It's just amazing.