American Hustle

New York, the end of the 1970s. Irving Rosenfeld owns a chain of launderettes and earns a living as a con man and art forger. He finds his perfect partner in the seductive Sydney. They've already made a fortune when overachieving FBI agent Richie DiMaso gets wise to their game. To avoid prosecution they agree to act as bait. DiMaso is after bigger fish, including the mayor of a town in New Jersey. DiMaso's convinced that the mayor's image as moral crusader in fact conceals corruption. A deal allegedly worth millions replete with a fake sheikh does indeed lure the mafia into the arena. But nobody it seems reckoned with Rosenfeld's jealous wife ... Loosely based on a real political scandal, David O Russell's zany comedy is choc-a-bloc with eccentric, multi-layered characters. Russell's screenplay exposes his Silver Linings Playbook stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence and their co-actors to a slew of madly absurd vagaries and explosive situations. The film found favour with audiences and critics alike in the USA.