David O'Russell's new film is a mini-reunion of sorts, with The Fighter alumni Christian Bale and Amy Adams playing the conning couple Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser, plus Silver Linings Playbook's Jennifer Lawrence as Irving's hilariously difficult wife Rosalyn and Bradley Cooper the over-ambitious FBI agent Richie DiMaso.
After Richie busts Irving and Sydney's loaning scam operation, he forces them to work with him to in turn catch other Jersey politicians, cons and criminals red-handed. Their entry point is Mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), whom Irving has befriended.
From there, the film devolves into a high-stakes, who's conning who, action-filled flurry of gold chains, aviator sunnies, curled hair and décolletage that contrasts the glitzy and gaudy with the dishevelled and deceptive. It's a constant power struggle between the mastermind Irving, calculating and controlled Sydney, hot-headed Richie and, to a lesser extent, relentless and restless Rosalyn. While all their relationships are nuanced, O'Russell doesn't focus on them specifically (as much as, say, in The Fighter or SLP); instead we are more invested in the individual characters themselves. In a film in which everything's an act and nothing's real, we are privy to the characters' personal motivations and watch from the sidelines as they come undone, their ugly traits taking over and seeping out.
A driven narrative, glamorous costume and set design, first-class performances and cameos aplenty keep you hooked from beginning to end. The whole film is about putting on a good show, after all.
