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Fri, Jan 03, 2014
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Fab vintage wardrobe

UNITED STATES - Hair and boobs are important, uncredited characters in the new crime dramedy American Hustle.

The movie, which is currently showing here, even begins with an almost loving look at how to get a comb-over to stick - courtesy of Christian Bale's con man character, Irving Rosenfeld.

As for boobs, Amy Adams' ones are everywhere, as are Jennifer Lawrence's.

This is not gratuitous styling though.

The "louche exuberance and unapologetic fun" of 70s style, as described by Vogue magazine, is brought to life in this tale of two con men and a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent trying to, questionably, bring down politicians in a story somewhat based on fact.

"Style was sexed-up, silhouettes took a turn to the exaggerated - as did heels and hemlines - and there was certainly a nouveau riche whiff in the air with all that gold and fur being paraded around," continues Vogue.

JULIANA JUNE RASUL grades American Hustle's fabulous vintage wardrobe.

BRADLEY COOPER

"Saturday Night Fever from 1977. (That) had the most pertinence to Bradley Cooper's character," the film's costume designer, Michael Wilkinson, said in an interview.

His Richard "Richie" DiMaso is a guy from the Bronx. He lived life as a black-and-white moral shooter working for the FBI and wears a cheap polyester suit that doesn't fit him so well."

Neither does the painstaking hairdo he recreates every day with curlers, the movie's second worst (but still fascinating) hairstyle.

Grade: C+.

The "+" is actually a "t", as in "terribly tacky".

JEREMY RENNER

The actor was thoroughly traumatised by the big hair and big bow ties he had to contend with daily. But he bit his tongue in favour of finding "truth" for his character of Carmine Polito, a politician led astray by con men and an FBI agent looking for an easy victim.

"You just kind of give up any ego and just go for it," Renner told MTV. "I love that, I love that attitude."

Grade: B

You can hardly tell Renner's itching in those suits, he plays his part with such panache.

CHRISTIAN BALE

Batman had the worst of it on set.

As the movie's main con man Irving Rosenfeld, he had to put on a fake comb-over that took forever to get glued on right every day and a big fake belly underneath his heavy velvet suits. "It's not just over the top. It was like Halloween - for a decade!" he told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Grade: A

For effort. Bale is a reputed method actor after all.

JENNIFER LAWRENCE

Instead of Adams' elegant wrap dresses, Lawrence, as Rosenfeld's shrill, self-absorbed housewife Rosalyn, is squeezed into tight glittery pieces, her blonde hair big and piled atop her head for that added sense of craziness.

"I wouldn't say it's exciting to see yourself without a bra in a dress that's three sizes too small for you, but that was the 70s," Lawrence told MTV.

Grade: A

The character's overall vibe is tacky, but the dresses show off Lawrence's insanely perfect body.

AMY ADAMS

The hardest thing about being a 70s babe for Amy Adams?

The lack of support. We're talking underwire.

As the stripper-cum-seductress con woman Sydney Prosser, Adams is clothed in various cut-down-to-there dresses, from slinky Diane von Furstenberg wrap dresses to more glitzy Gucci creations.

"I never used tape," Adams told fashion blog The Cut. "It's a credit to my posture. And good editing. And nudity clauses."

Grade: A++

The costumes have been called "JLo-esque" for their low necklines, but we disagree - they're way classier. 70s style brought to life in American Hustle


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