History Film / AmericanHustle

* BadLiar: Richie didn't exactly do a bang-up job of convincing Sydney that he did not, in fact, have a fiancée. And any time it falls on him to sell the con, he either blows it or only just covers himself.

-->'''Sydney:''' Well, I care about him. He saved my life - many times.
-->'''Irving:''' Mine, too. Which one?
-->'''Sydney:''' ''Jeep's Blues.''
-->'''Irving:''' (smiles) ''Jeep's Blues''?
-->'''Sydney:''' (smiles back) ''Jeep's Blues''. Yeah.
-->'''Irving:''' You, uh...wanna hear it?

---> '''Rosalyn:''' ...he thinks I'm stupid, [[{{Irony}}but I'm not stupid]]. I hear him on the phone arguing...he loves Carmine, but he hates that other guy, that curly-headed IRS guy or whatever...
---> '''Pete:''' IRS? You said IRS..what IRS guy? What are you talking about?
---> '''Rosalyn:''' I hear them on the phone...I think he's got Irv in some kind of bind or something...

---> '''Danny Rosenfeld:''' (to Irving) ''Did you know they made a lamp that has the sun in it? Mommy got the lamp, she made her [[TheAlcoholic special drink]], and the lamp made a fire.''
---> '''Rosalyn:''' (rolls eyes) ''I '''''put out''''' the fire...''

---> '''Rosalyn:''' Bring something into our house that's going to take all the nutrition out of our food and then [[BeCarefulWhatYouSay light our house on fire]]? [[LethallyStupid Thank God for me]].
* BreakTheHaughty: The scene revealing [[spoiler:TheCon does this to Richie. As the conmen calmly explain how they played him, he starts off angry and gets more subdued as he realises how thoroughly screwed he is. When Irving (who had always argued they should be keeping the con small) criticises him for only going for the soft targets instead of the real money men, his response is an almost ''whimpered'' "That's who I wanted to go for!"]]

* ButtMonkey: Richie's boss Thorsen, a rather meek and mild-natured man who receives little-to-no respect from Richie. Over the course of the movie, Richie progresses from mild insubordination towards Thorsen to obnoxious demands to violent threats to ''beating Thorsen up with a telephone'' to holding him at gunpoint. Richie then manages to completely avoid any kind of punishment for the latter by charming Thorsen's boss into supporting his plan, and then proceeds to cruelly bully and humiliate Thorsen at the celebration when it looks like Richie's pretty much brought down the entire Mob. And worse, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Thorsen never even gets to complete an anecdote about ice-fishing with his brother]]. [[spoiler: Becomes TheDogBitesBack, however, when it becomes clear that Richie's overreached and fucked up in the process, and Thorsen -- with a certain amount of satisfaction -- informs Richie that he's off the case.]]

--> "No more fake shit. ''No more fake shit.'' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis NO. MORE. FAKE. SHIT.]]"

* ChekhovsGunman: Alfonse Simone appears in an early scene. [[spoiler: He's not Tellegio's lawyer at all but a friend of the conmen who held the party where Irving and Sydney met.]]

* TheCon: Irving and Sydney's exit strategy. They know Richie's grand plan to nab not only the corrupt politicians, but also high-ranking mafia man Victor Tellegio, will ultimately lead to their deaths as they are the only viable targets the mafia can punish. So they [[spoiler:con Richie into thinking he wired cash to Tellegio when he really wired it to them so that they can use it to buy their immunity from prosecution and safety from the mafia.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The opening scene, which details the build-up to the first attempt to entrap Mayor Polito in accepting a bribe, succinctly reveals quite a bit about the four main characters:
** We first see Irving Rosenfeld carefully and methodically preparing his comb-over and taking Richie to task for some holes in his plan, clearly establishing that he is methodical, details-orientated, and cautious, and that disguising who he is is a central part of his identity;
** Sydney admits to an intimate (although not sexual) moment with Richie, but makes a point of rebuking Richie and gently fixing Irving's comb-over when Richie deliberately messes it up, suggesting that she is playing both men against the other but genuinely cares for Irving;
** Richie gets into an argument with Irving, pulls rank, deliberately messes up his hair, and is over-eager when offering the bribe to Polito, nearly ruining the whole operation -- he's impulsive, hot-headed, throws his weight around and is all-up a bit of a jerk;

* {{Foil}}: Richie for Irving. Irving is a criminal, Richie's FBI. Irving, despite his domestic troubles, cares deeply for his family's well-being. Richie easily ignores his fiancée. Irving is cautious and focused on keeping cons small; Richie keeps going for bigger and bigger scams. And, most telling, Irving fell for Sydney based on shared interests; Richie seeks only sexual connection with her.

-->'''Rosalyn''': I knew that Pete was going to go over there and knock some sense into your head. I've been reading this book Irving. It's by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayne_Dyer Wayne Dyer]]. ''The Power of Intention''. And my intention in sending Pete over to you was that so you could come up with this plan. [[SmugSuper So, you're welcome]].

** [=DiMaso=] manages to talk his way out of any kind of punishment for beating up his superior officer with a telephone by charming the head of the local FBI office into supporting his grand plan to bring down the corrupt congressmen and senators. [[spoiler: It's subverted by the end of the film, however, when any credibility he has managed to acquire through his operation completely evaporates when Irving and Sydney arrange things to make it look like he's either embezzled two million dollars from the government or is an incompetent who's been conned by the very con-artists he trapped into working for him.]]

** Amy Adams also struggles to maintain a (real-world convincing) English accent throughout her time as 'Lady Edith'. [[InUniverse Though that may be part of the point.]][[note]]Amy Adams described her as someone who saw a couple of movies and based her accent off that. In the 70s there wouldn't have been many opportunities for Sydney to really have time to study a real English accent.[[/note]]

** Richie's boss Thorsen, who's skeptical about his subordinate's plan from the start and only reluctantly goes along with it. Later as Richie grows more and more unstable he refuses to accept his demands and Richie has to go over his head to get further authorization for the sting.
** Irving acted in this role when Richie's sting got more and more involved. He kept reminding Richie to keep things simple and go to the smaller score (although to be fair he was also trying to get out from under Richie's thumb.) Irving was proven right when [[spoiler: Richie's overly-complicated scheme allows him to be conned at the end.]]

* RecruitingTheCriminal: The movie revolves around FBI Agent [=DiMaso=] forcing con-artists Irving and Sydney to work for him to bring down other con artists. [[spoiler: The con-artists eventually end up pulling one over on [=DiMaso=] himself, ruining his career in the process.]]

* SharpDressedMan: Irving, Carmine and [=DiMaso=] in most of their scenes. Justified in Carmine's case because he is a mayor.

-->--'''Irving Rosenfeld'''

* AmbiguouslyBi: Rosalyn who lives in an awful marriage with Irving and charms many con men but plants a kiss on Sydney and enjoys it.

* UnreliableNarrator: The film begins with a title card saying "Most of this actually happened."

* AbsoluteCleavage: Sydney is dressed like this in multiple scenes. Amy Adams's dress at the 2014 Golden Globes also had a plunging neckline, leading to some jokes that she had "stayed in-character."
* AmbiguouslyBrown: In-universe, the FBI use a Hispanic agent as their Arab sheikh. Irving ridicules the idea.

* TheThreeFacesOfEve: The three prominent females fall into these roles more or less. Rosalyn is the child - very naive and immature. Dolly is the wife - the only well-adjusted woman in the film and HappilyMarried to Carmine. Sydney is the seductress - she's dressed seductively and employs a HoneyTrap to con people. This is emphasised in the one scene where all three appear together - Rosalyn wears [[VirginInAWhiteDress white]], Dolly wears [[TrueBlueFemininity blue]] and Sydney wears a [[EverythingsBetterWithSparkles sparkly dress]] with AbsoluteCleavage.

* TheEndingChangesEverything: [[spoiler:Any investment one had in either Richie and Sydney’s developing romance and/or the mob takedown plot is completely undermined and destroyed by the ending revealing she and Irving were not only conning Richie the whole time, but also ended up wrecking the sting, making him be forced to either be guilty of crimes himself or look incompetent unless he step away and allow the mob to get away scot free in the process too.]]

A 2013 feature film directed by Creator/DavidORussell and starring Creator/ChristianBale, Creator/AmyAdams, Creator/BradleyCooper, Creator/JeremyRenner and Creator/JenniferLawrence. It's loosely based on the real life "ABSCAM" operation run by the FBI in the late 1970s and early 1980s, although the film openly acknowledges that it's heavily fictionalized.

* NotSoDifferent: Rosalyn pulls this one on Sydney, suggesting that they're both disgusting and that's why Irving likes them.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Rosalyn gives a pretty brutal one to Sydney -- [[KirkSummation when Sydney calls out Rosalyn for manipulating Irving and being "gross inside",]] [[ShutUpKirk Rosalyn replies that Sydney must be gross inside too,]] because of her con-artist lifestyle, and that maybe [[NotSoDifferent "that's what Irving loves about us".]] What makes this brutal is that, however malicious and generally unlikeable she is, [[DumbassHasAPoint everything Rosalyn says is true.]]