A fictional film set in the seductive world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock the united states, american hustle tells the story of brilliant con man irving rosenfeld christian bale, who along with his equally cunning british partner and lover sydney prosser amy adams is forced to work for a wild unhinged fbi agent richie dimaso bradley cooper.dimaso pushes them into a world of jersey powerbrokers and mafia that's as dangerous as it is enchanting. Jeremy renner is carmine polito, the passionate, volatile, new jersey political operator caught between the con artists and feds. Irving's unpredictable wife rosalyn jennifer lawrence could be the one to pull the thread that brings the entire world crashing down. Like david o. Russell's previous films, american hustle defies genre, hinging on raw emotion, and life and death stakes.