This was on my must-watch films for 2013, for a couple of reasons. One, it has a couple of my favorite actors, Amy Adams, and Jennifer Lawrence. The other reason is I am trying to compile my top ten films of the year, and after seeing this film, it definitely belongs on the list. This is essentially a grifters type of movie, with Amy Adams and a fat Christian Bale being the grifters or scammers.
They are in a relationship even though Bale is married and has a child with Jennifer Lawrence. This was my first red flag. There is no way this fat guy with his terrible comb-over would be able to pull women of this caliber, so for me, I had to suspend my disbelief a little. Bradley Cooper plays an FBI agent who is trying to bust the grifters and he eventually does. However, they made a deal to bring in at least four more “bigger” fish, in order to avoid jail time. Cooper’s boss is played by Louis C.K., which was a surprise to me. Even though I enjoy his television series, Louis, on FX, I just really never thought of him as a serious actor. He was great in this. In fact all of the acting this film was top notch. Amy Adams was great with her fake British accent and she had more screen time than Jennifer Lawrence. However, I really think Jennifer Lawrence’s’ performance overshadowed Amy Adams a bit even though she was not on screen as much. What can I say, I am now just a big fan of hers ever since her awesome, academy award-winning performance in ‘Silver Linings Playbook‘. As for the men in the film, both Bale and Cooper were really good. By the same token, I think I was more blown away by Cooper’s performance. There was a scene with Bradly Cooper and Amy Adams, where they were discussing not having sex until they are completely real with each other. She was sitting on a table with her legs hanging down, with Bradley Cooper in between hugging her close. He said he was laying out everything on the table. There was a sexual tension build up in that scene, that couldn’t have felt more real, had they had no clothes on. Bradley pushes back, huffs and puffs, and walks out seemingly before he exploded.
In this film, I don’t think there was any question who was going to get over on whom. You always knew that Christian Bale and Amy Adams were going to pull the ultimate grift. Although I did have a slight hesitation when Amy Adams and Bradly Cooper were forming their relationship, and Amy Adams finally revealed to Bradley Cooper that she did not really have a British accent. Part of me was wondering had she switched sides? All of these types of situations were fun to watch and to find out how they unfolded. I would highly recommend this film.
*****
