David O. Russell is certainly a director to watch.  His previous two films, gritty boxing drama The Fighter and likeable comedy Silver Linings Playbook, garnered Best Film Oscar nominations, and won numerous awards for his actors. Released only a year after Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle has already gathered critical interest, with talk of big wins at the major awards ceremonies. It is not hard to see why: Russell has effectively transplanted the best elements of his previous two directorial outings into a nostalgic period piece. For fans of Russell’s work, American Hustle is a boon; for everyone else, however, in spite of some inspired elements, the film fails to come together as a whole.

If there’s one theme running through Russell’s first two films, it's the study of complex, if flawed, characters. American Hustle is a natural continuation: we’re back in the gaudy 70s, and Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is a New York conman working with his mistress Sydney (Amy Adams). When the two are discovered in a bust, FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) offers them immunity if they agree to help him investigate politician Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) and the murky world of the New Jersey mafia. When Irving’s effervescent wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence) intervenes, the whole plan threatens to come crashing down.

It is hard not to be swept along with Russell’s likeable, slightly whimsical style, despite the occasional indulgent oddity (such as Jennifer Lawrence rocking out to 'Live and Let Die' in marigold gloves, or a slightly lurid obsession with Amy Adams’s side-boob). Indeed, the stellar cast create a sense of fun whilst maintaining convincing characterisation – it is easy to see how Russell elicits Oscar-worthy performances. Particularly intriguing is the complex interplay between the characters, keeping the audience guessing as to who is conning who, and whether or not they are acting a role. Unlike Russell’s previous two films, whose plots were slightly predictable and clichéd, I enjoyed letting the drama twist and turn as the characters – and perhaps actors – try to outdo each other and gain the upper hand.

For all its charm, however, American Hustle ultimately failed to win me – and I suspect my fellow audience members, some of whom left early – over.  For a start, at two hours and twenty minutes the film drags, meaning that its charm can become irritating and interest in the plot hard to maintain. Though the characters are well drawn and complex, they are in the end rather unlikeable, cheating on each other for their own selfish goals.  If the film were a dark character study then this would work, but given the sentimental and slightly saccharine ending, the overall effect is one of confusion – are we meant to root for and sympathise with characters that are not only flawed but unpleasant? Further, for a film billed as a drama-comedy, it contains surprisingly few laughs. Perhaps it should be re-branded as bittersweet, but even then the combination of intense drama, light comedy and whimsical 70s nostalgia feels more like a sloppy mêlée rather than a coherent whole.

American Hustle has already been tipped for big things, but unfortunately its flaws are a little too glaring; it pales in comparison to awards-season behemoths such as Gravity. This is in many ways an accomplished film, but arguably undeserving of the Oscars hype.