Period
pieces often serve as Oscar bait. Having a quick scan over the best
Oscar winners since the beginning of the eighties, it seems most have
some kind of historical setting. From Gladiator to Titanic from
Forest Gump to Lord of the Ringsi
the academy seem to like being taken into the past and meeting
characters with period hair and clothing. American Hustle provides
lots of period clothing and hair and is very aware of it's
historical setting and my guess is the Oscar Academy will be
impressed. Set in the late 1970s, David O'Russell's American Hustle
is a fictionalisation of the Abscam affair, in which the FBI enlisted
(in the film forced) con artists to entrap, um I mean, ensnare senior
politicians in a bribery sting, using a fake Arab Sheik.
Following
closely on the heels of O'Russell's heavily nominated Silver Linings
Playbook and starring Oscar winners Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence
and Robert De Niro and with nominees Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner
and Amy Adams, you have to assume that the producers had the Oscars very
much on their mind as they were pulling everything together. So I
guess the question is this - does bringing together all this talent in
one film actually work and does it deserve the accolades it so very desperately wants?
