Genre: Crime/Drama/Biography
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner
Irving Rosenfield (Bale) was a simple con-artist who took money from people who were desperate for loans and to whom banks had already turned down. He took a processing fee with no guarantee of the loan being sanctioned and no scope for refunds. None of the loans were ever sanctioned. He worked hand-in-glove with his mistress, Sydney Prosser (Adams) who posed as a British socialite with banking connections in London from where the money would come through. When FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Cooper) busts their racket, Richie offers Irving and Sydney complete immunity if he helps them apprehend 4 other fugitives. Mayor of Camden, New Jersey Carmine Polito (Renner) wants to revamp Atlantic City and thus create hundreds of jobs for his people and for this he needed some investment backup. The FBI hatch a plot to create the fake identity of an Arab Sheikh and create sting operations where he would offer a bribe to Carmine and other Congress members and provide them a false hope of investments to build Atlantic City. The movie is loosely based on an actual FBI sting operation involving a fake Sheikh and the Mayor of Camden although other elements in the movie are fictional and only to add drama to the story. David O. Russell has earned a reputation for himself for being able to churn out Oscar winners and this movie seems like it would go down the same path. It boasts of very strong performances from each of the cast members, however, the movie lands up only focusing on the characters with less thought going towards the story. Being a con-movie, one would typically expect a sensational climax and a story that would blow your mind away; this movie does none of that. There are some obvious loopholes and some parts that one may not completely understand and those add to the movie losing steam halfway down the line and not being very engaging. Having said that, the movie is not exactly a drag either but do not expect it to be like Oceans Eleven. The main and only highlight is the performances and had the story been stronger, this would have been one amazing movie.
Thumbs up: Great acting from across the board
Thumbs down: Story gets a bit slow and not very enticing
Rating: 6.9/10
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