On top of the American Hustle, Sony has just released a third featuring the entire principal cast including Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and, recent Oscar-winner for Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence.
I also think it’s interesting how many saw the just released trailer (included below) and think the film may suffer in the Oscar race as a result of comparisons to Argo, which was also set in the ’70s and fudged the facts when it came to its “based on a true story” plot line. Well, the just released official synopsis from Sony is already attempting to squash that by admitting up front this is a fictional telling of a true story:
A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper). DiMaso pushes them into a world of Jersey powerbrokers and mafia that’s as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy Renner is Carmine Polito, the passionate, volatile, New Jersey political operator caught between the con-artists and Feds. Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down. Like David O. Russell’s previous films, American Hustle defies genre, hinging on raw emotion, and life and death stakes.
Granted, this doesn’t mean the film is free and clear from comparisons, but it does insinuate it’s attempting to rid the audience of any suggestion that what they are watching actually happened as it will be seen on screen.
In addition to this, producer Charles Roven spoke with The Playlist and said, “The film has really become a fictitious movie that takes place during the time of Abscam, and has some Abscam in it. But it’s by no mean the true story of Abscam, the Zero Dark Thirty version of that story.”
American Hustle hits limited theaters on December 13 and expands nationwide on Christmas Day.
