History Film / AmericanHustle

* CorruptPolitician: [[spoiler: Averted with Mayor Polito. He turns out to be a NiceGuy and good family man who genuinely cared for his constituents and the state of New Jersey. He only got involved in order to help his community and not for personal enrichment. Irving admits at the end that even the less-high-minded politicians caught in the sting were on a spectrum, some being almost as clean as Polito and others dirty as sin.]]

The plot revolves around Irving Rosenfeld (Bale), a brilliant small-time con-artist who, with his lover Sydney Presser (Adams) posing as a well-connected British aristocrat, runs a successful fraudulent loans operation out of a chain of dry-cleaners. The good times are brought to a rapid halt, however, when they're busted by ambitious FBI agent Rich [=DiMaso=] (Cooper), who uses the threat of jail time to force them into working for him as part of a sting operation to expose local corruption in New Jersey, beginning with Carmine Polito (Renner), the idealistic mayor of Camden. [=DiMaso=] soon sets his sights on higher targets, however, and there's also Rosenfeld's highly unstable wife Rosalyn (Lawrence), whose suspicions about her husband's extra-marital activities put everyone at risk.

* MissingTrailerScene: Carmine's spiel about his father teaching him that "All people are good and to be good to all people" is left out of the final film.

* MsFanservice: Sydney.

** Sidney's scream in the stall could easily count as this, following her going full-fledged into seducing Richie.

** 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.]]

* {{Dramatization}}: The film is based on the real life [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscam ABSCAM]] FBI operation and the participation of con artist, Mel Weinberg (the man Bale's character is based on), in the operation.

* 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 unlikable she is, [[DumbassHasAPoint everything Rosalyn says is true.]]

* UglyGuyHotWife: Irving is overweight, balding and hairy everywhere else. He's married to a beautiful blonde (albeit one with severe SanitySlippage) and is in love with an equally glamorous redhead. Sydney even lampshades this in her narration, saying although he wasn't attractive at all she was still drawn to him.

The film earned 10 [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscar]] nominations but went home empty-handed, becoming the third nominated film with no wins and tied with ''GangsOfNewYork'' and ''TrueGrit'' for second place among the biggest losers in Academy history. It is also the [[RuleOfThree third]] Oscar-nominated film where all of four acting categories didn't win any since ''My Man Godfrey'' in 1936 and ''Sunset Boulevard'' in 1950. (It did score big at the box office, however, taking in just over $150 million domestically and a further $101 million elsewhere.)

* GreyAndGrayMorality: A theme of the movie is that there are no clear-cut heroes or villains. The con-artists, although they make a living scamming the desperate, are also being taken advantage of by a larger corrupt system. The corrupt politician is genuinely idealistic and altruistic and reasons that his corrupt activities are his best way of improving the lives of the people he represents. Rosalyn may be manipulative, but she is also deeply hurt by her husband's affair with Sydney. And the FBI agent is violently unstable, hot-headed and, it's heavily implied, is addicted to cocaine. ''All'' the main characters are also cheating on their partners.

--> "Say what you will about him, at least he's consistent."

* 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."

* ByronicHeroine: Sydney, oh so very much. More than any of the others, she struggles deeply with herself over her path in life. It's strongly indicated early on that she's long adopted a highly Romantic view towards the life of a con artist who thumbs their nose at the structures of society. Her arc has her going through a ''deep'' emotional ringer. It's even implied that part of her sees a potential chance for redemption in the possibility of choosing Richie over Irving, until she realizes he's not so straight-and-narrow after all.

** TheConWithinACon: 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.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: Carmine's friendship helps Irving reform.]]

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Irving goes through this when [[spoiler: Carmine goes down.]]

* NoodleIncident: The ending to the ice fishing story. Richie keeps interrupting Stoddard, dismissing him by [[GenreSavvy claiming to know what's the end of the story]], and straight up ignoring him by the end. [[spoiler:WordOfGod says it's about his brother taking a shit on the ice.]]

* MaleGaze: The camera just ''loves'' ogling Creator/AmyAdams in this film--constantly panning up her legs and focusing on her cleavage. [[BestKnownForTheFanservice Safe to say the male audience got their money's worth.]]

** Amy Adams also struggles to maintain a (real-world convincing) English accent throughout her time as 'Lady Edith'. [[FridgeBrilliance Though that may be part of the point.]]

** Amy Adams also struggles to maintain a (real-world convincing) English accent throughout her time as 'Lady Edith'.

** Proof of how "larger-than-life" her inner struggles are: In the end of the memorable "disco" sequence, after she and Irving make out in the stall, Sydney has Irving leave...and when she's alone, her angst comes out in full force as a ''scream''.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Rosalyn gives a pretty brutal one to Sydney -- [[KirkSumnation 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 unlikable she is, [[DumbassHasAPoint everything Rosalyn says is true.]]

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

* TheCameo: Creator/RobertDeNiro as mob boss Victor Tellegio. (Not only is he uncredited, but the end titles have a position for someone working for "Mr. Tellegio.")

* ChekovsGunman: 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.]]

* ShoutOut: Plenty of references to MartinScorsese's unique style and cinema, mainly to ''Goodfellas'' and ''Casino'', to the point that, reviewers debate if it's an {{homage}} or a [[http://www.vulture.com/2013/12/american-hustle-and-the-art-of-the-homage.html rip-off]].

The film earned 10 [[AcademyAward Oscar]] nominations but went home empty-handed, becoming the third nominated film with no wins and tied with ''GangsOfNewYork'' and ''TrueGrit'' for second place among the biggest losers in Academy history. It is also the [[RuleOfThree third]] Oscar-nominated film where all of four acting categories didn't win any since ''My Man Godfrey'' in 1936 and ''Sunset Boulevard'' in 1950. (It did score big at the box office, however, taking in just over $150 million domestically and a further $101 million elsewhere.)

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: And the movie cheerfully admits this: the very first shot of the movie is a title card casually declaring that "Some of this actually happened".

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Irving and Sydney get immunity for all of their crimes, go straight, move in together, and share custody of Rosalyn's son with Rosalyn. Rosalyn herself gets together with one of Victor's enforcers, and it's a visibly healthier relationship than the one she had with Irving. Unfortunately, Carmine still went to jail for his chimerical action,seven if they were for the good of the people, and Irving is forever haunted by the loss of their friendship.]]