Thursday, January 23, 2014

American Hustle Film Review and Wine Pairing

American Hustle is a bristling and glamorous fictional tale of deception and scam set in the underworld dealings of New Jersey before the return of the big casinos.  Dead are the boardwalks and card tables that once shined. However, the underworld money is there to make a resurgence and the powerbrokers and politicians stand poised and hungry as director, David O. Russel, saddles us into the lives of a young and hungry FBI agent(Bradley Cooper) who gets his claws into a scam artist(Christian Bale) and the smooth and silky dealings begin. Like an oaky and buttery chardonnay, this film starts with some attractive green fruit and soon gets very thick on the palate.

American Hustle has, by far, the best acting of any film I've seen this year. Slick is the best word ....if I can describe it in one...that lays a runway for the walks that each of these characters struts in this cunning and glitzy film.  The debauchery resonates as our team of scam artists infiltrated by FBI agents twist their way up the ladder of organized crime in one of the smoothest crime stories I've the pleasure of viewing in some time.

As to which character stood out the most for me?  Jennifer Lawrence.  Don't get me wrong - I was subdued by Amy Adams dancing and her deceiving British accent.  I was mesmerized by Irving Rosenfeld's(Christian Bale's) genius and demure.  But, Jennifer Lawrence gets my toast of fine wine for the troubled, recluse housewife that plays so very stupid and, yet, so very smart, all the while seducing you with her moves and pouty lips as she chain smokes us through her brilliant performance.

One wine and one wine, only, came to my mind while I was watching this film.  Slick and sultry and considered to be the finest of buttery and oaky chardonnays, Rombauer from Carneros stands alone.  All the nuance from the oak....the silky vanilla, the toasty notes behind the green subtle orchard fruit, and the creaminess left in your mouth mimic so very well the menagerie of the tale we taste in American Hustle.