Review of "American Hustle"

Lupe 2022-04-19 09:01:09

"American Hustle," directed by David O. Russell, tells the story of a pair of lovers who use shell companies to defraud their careers by FBI agent Richie. Under pressure, they must help Richie capture more. Stories of multiple "criminals" to escape charges. But things have gotten out of hand since Camden, N.J. Mayor McCain was targeted. Ritchie's "appetite" grew due to a strong self-esteem and a desperate desire for self-worth. Not only plans to charge McCain and several congressmen involved with bribery, but also to jail Mafia member Terregio. The lovers who assisted Richie in fishing law enforcement thought that after helping Richie catch a few people like them, the so-called burden would be thrown away, but the development of the situation made them more and more at a loss: if they helped Richie's fishing law enforcement is successful, then Mayor McCain, who sincerely wants to serve the citizens, will be sent to prison. In addition, although they avoided Richie's accusation, the Mafia will never let it go easily. After them... At this point in the story, vivid characters have long been shown, but the director is unwilling to put all the facts in front of the audience, he wants an "ideal" ending. It is for this reason that the plot took a turn with the flash of the liar Ivan: Irwin used Rich's psychology to guide him to transfer $2 million to a friend's account instead of Tregio's account. , if the FBI insists on solving the case and does not commute the sentence for McCain, then they will also go to jail for losing taxpayer money. In addition, the whole fishing law enforcement did not involve Tregio, so the relevant Mafia personnel escaped the charges. . In my opinion, the whole story should not have a happy ending, otherwise the reality of life shown in the first half of the film will be completely destroyed by what is called "ideal", but for those who only focus on the story of the film For the general audience, the whole plot had to develop like this. In order to be able to better evaluate this film, I do not intend to have any discussion on the ending, I want to focus on the life reality of several characters in the film.
Ai Wen met Sidney at a party, and they soon began to fall in love because of similar personalities. Soon after, Ivan confessed to Sidney that he was a liar and invited Sidney to cheat with him, Sidney agreed to his advice because he loved him. The two pretended to be a loan company to lure people who were in desperate need of loans to take the bait and extract "fees" from them. This scam is the first scam in the film, and it's also the easiest. Those who desperately need loans think they have found a life-saving straw, and their inner emotions are also dissipated. They all believe that this is a reasonable, legal and effective solution. However, Alvin and Sidney, who made up the whole solution, knew very well that it was all just a trick to make money. They relied on a solution that was actually completely feasible, and made up a fake solution. The emotions of the deceived, although always under the control of the whole deception, change as they are under the control of real events: from anxiety, to joy, to relief. However, the emotions of the deceived in the process of being deceived do not only include these three states. When the deception becomes clear and the deceived suddenly falls from falsehood to reality, anger and eagerness are simultaneously affected by the control of the deception. The nourishment of various emotions becomes intense. During the whole process, the "produced" emotions of the deceived could have been eliminated by the realistic solution, but because of the falsity of the solution, all the emotions have become "superfluous", and the accumulation in the deceived has nowhere to go. Roaring, crying, or a great way to calm down, it doesn't actually do anything. Even if the deceived is freed from this incident and has a very calm heart to face this deception, this does not prove that the previous "superfluous" emotions have been dispelled. In fact, these emotions eventually flowed into a larger reality, which may be the reality of "there are good people and bad people in the world", and we don't know, this reality can't be seen by other people, and it's just A false reality by their design. If there are so many deceptions that the larger reality cannot bear the emotions that arise from them, then these accumulated emotions are bound to mutate into the same type of "anger" as those who were deceived after the deception was exposed. At that moment, the so-called "roaring and crying" is not just a few harmless venting behaviors. This is the case with Ai Wen. Although he is fabricating simple and mutually isolated scams, he does not know when he will be caught in the same scam. FBI agent Rich found him, Rich pretended to need a loan and succeeded The phishing law enforcement obtained evidence of Ivan and Sidney's deception. Richie's scam dominated Ivan's simple scam. Ivan had to assist Richie in fishing and law enforcement in order to avoid accusations. Although Ivan had seen the reality from Richie's scam, there was no way for his emotions to change. Dissolved in that scam, he was thrown from falsehood to reality by Richie, and his entire emotion could only be dissolved in that reality when he assisted Richie in fishing law enforcement, or was accused by Richie. Ai Wen did not follow Sidney's suggestion to run away with the money, and chose the seemingly simple former. This situation happened to contrast with Rosalind's coercion of Ai Wen with her son, Ai Wen also chose to let his emotions dissolve in the seemingly simple reality. Of course, later events proved that his choice was also wrong.
Rosalind is Ivan's wife, and Ivan has long hated her, but the divorce between the two will inevitably involve the issue of children's attribution. Ivan was unwilling to leave his beloved son, so he had to maintain his marriage with Rosalind. Rosalind, on the other hand, has always loved Ai Wen and did not want Ai Wen to leave her. At a dinner, Rosalind introduced her nail polish to the mayor's wife. When talking about its smell, "flowers with garbage" became my deepest impression of her. Although nail polish has an unpleasant smell, some people smell it like a flower involuntarily. When Ivan no longer loves Rosaline, their marriage has become a clear false fact, and his emotions can no longer be dispelled from it. But Rosalind didn't want to admit it, she still wanted to let her emotions dissolve in the marriage following the old routine. Such efforts are worthless, more precisely, the false facts that are clearly seen are facts that no longer exist, their relationship must be maintained by their sons, and in addition, marriage has become a marriage in the eyes of others (After all, their marriage is still a reality for other people): This is why Rosalind has been trying her best to attend a party with Ivan. Rosalind can only feel it when she frequently appears in the eyes of everyone. Until the reality of marriage exists, her emotions can be temporarily dissolved. But Rosalind always has to face Ai Wen, so as to see the false facts again and again. In this way, she has been jumping between her own false facts and the reality of others, and the production, accumulation and mutation of emotions are often extremely Quickly, "excess" emotions also flowed through intermittent manic streams from time to time. In the end, part of Rosalind's emotions was stabilized when she accidentally met and fell in love with one of Teregio's men. It is also for this reason that she made a slip of the tongue and gradually put her previous chaotic emotions into her new relationship. Trouble arose, and Tregio learned that Ai Wen had contacts with the government, and then planned to kidnap Ai Wen. The traumatic consequences of Evan's compromise in dealing with his wife's coercion are also reflected in his compromise in dealing with Richie's coercion.
After several successful fishing enforcement, Rich's appetite grew, and he eventually set his sights on Mayor McCain. Throughout the film, Richie and Rosalind are completely opposite characters. Rosalind clearly knew when she faced herself that her marriage with Irving was a false fact, but when Richie faced herself, she was convinced that she Living in the reality of reality, Rosalind can only dissolve her emotions in the eyes of everyone, and her so-called behavior can be normal, while Richie is generally extremely manic when facing everyone, because everyone makes him fall into false facts, To do this, he had to get more people to join his game, to be participants in his own reality (which is why he loves fishing law enforcement, and through it step by step intends to get mayors, congressmen, and even The reason for the evidence of the crime of the mafia). Rich's boss in the FBI is the one who has always forced him to see the false facts. No matter what the action is, the boss has to remind him not to overdo it, and he always contradicts the boss because of the short-term mutation of his emotions. move. At the end of the film, Ivan first realized that Richie could not guarantee his safety after his success, so he once again saw the so-called false facts of Richie and took uncooperative actions, and then he kept cheating Richie makes him believe that Sidney, who he likes him, confronts Richie, which cracks the truth of Richie's supposed reality. At the same time, this also caused his emotions to be manifested in the form of manic and impulsive behavior on the boss who had just rejected one of his requests. But the FBI's higher boss, an equally ambitious person, affirmed Richie's behavior, thereby bridging the fact that his already fractured reality. In the end, either Richie succeeded in surviving his supposed worth, or a bigger shock shattered the truth of Rich Richie's reality. This task was finally completed by Ai Wen's flash of inspiration, which directly prevented the audience from seeing all the deception, but only saw a happy ending. I think this is the worst part of this film, and it is also The film caters to the results of general public perception.
In addition to the above three characters, Ai Wen's lover Sidney has been acting together with Ai Wen, whether she and Richie "talk the truth" in the nightclub toilet, or openly kiss Richie in front of Ai Wen, It is another reflection of Ai Wen, if Ai Wen is a woman, he will do the same thing. When Ivan saw that Sidney and Richie were close to each other through the eyes of a third party, he actually briefly saw the so-called false fact of Richie's participation, and his "superfluous" emotions were in a manic state from then on. Overflow, not unreasonable. Finally, it is necessary to explain the mayor McCain, who has been mentioned all the time. Although he is involved with all the characters in the whole plot, he has always been in the position of "serving the interests of the citizens". For most people, he said In the fact that it is a reality, all Ritchie's group has to do is to spare no effort to fabricate such a false fact to let McCain and others fall into it unconsciously. The experience of the mayor is no different from the person who desperately wants a loan at the beginning of the film, but when Ai Wen experienced several changes in his emotions in a short period of time, he felt guilt towards the mayor. It can be said that this guilt is not It is aimed at the mayor, it only points to the mayor, but it is just a catalyst for the dissolving of self-emotions in the final reality, because the mayor will never forgive Ivan for what he did to him. Without guilt, it would be very difficult to dissolve emotions. Even with it, Ai Wen had no choice but to keep it as a knot in his heart.
Deception is actually the normal state of life. There is no real fact in this world that can dominate everything, and no false fact that needs to be preserved. Emotion itself is difficult to be eliminated, it is a thing that is constantly produced, dissolved, accumulated and alienated, and it is with people. All we have to do is to face it, or guide it towards a relatively better Real facts, human freedom, can only be reflected in this process.

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Extended Reading

American Hustle quotes

  • [from trailer]

    Irving Rosenfeld: Did you ever have to find a way to survive and you knew your choices were bad, *but* you had to survive?

  • Sydney Prosser: You're nothing to me until you're everything.