AMERICAN HUSTLE (Rated R)

Readers of this column may be expecting a review of “The Hobbit,” one of the major holiday film releases. Regrettably, a screening opportunity was either not available in time or Warner Bros. felt no great need to promote a sure thing box office hit.

In any case, it’s all for the better because due to my insufficient “Lord of the Rings” knowledge I really wouldn’t know the difference between Bilbo Baggins and the infamous Senator Theodore Bilbo (check out his sordid, checkered career online).

In a pivot away from medieval fantasy, David O. Russell’s “American Hustle,” rooted in the corruption of the late 1970s Abscam scandal, plays out as a fantasy of a different sort in a chaotic world full of con artists and hustlers vying for an edge.

The FBI sting operation that took down various politicians during the post-Watergate Jimmy Carter era seems too ripe for parody, considering that a fake sheik was used to entice the corruptible into accepting bribes in exchange for political favors.

At the film’s opening, a tag line reading “Some of this actually happened” is a tipoff to the playful subversive nature of director Russell conflating actual events and fictionalized accounts that are so fanciful that the shadowy world of undercover operations reeks of ambiguous morality.

Christian Bale is outstanding as hustler Irving Rosenfeld, the Bronx-born owner of a chain of dry cleaning shops who dabbles in phony bank loan schemes that appeal to incredibly gullible or desperate victims.

Overweight and balding (which is ridiculously concealed with a hairpiece that looks like roadkill), Irving’s unvarnished confidence charms the sexy Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), a New Mexico native who passes herself off as Lady Edith Greensly, with banking connections in London.

Fast becoming soul mates in crime, Irving and Sydney team up for more elaborate con jobs to separate the unwitting from their cash. Before long, the duo’s partnership becomes a full-blown love affair, apart from the fact that Irving has a wife and adopted son residing in Long Island.

Too eager to close a fake loan deal one day, Irving and Sydney get tripped up by the wily FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooer sporting a perm and dressed like he came straight out of “Saturday Night Fever”), who offers them a questionable deal to avoid jail time.

Bucking for a promotion and looking for a big takedown, Richie thinks that Irving and Sydney would fit nicely into his sting operation that does not exactly meet with the approval of his superior (comedian Louis C.K., amusing as the bumbling bureaucrat type).

Richie is the type of rogue agent who may have the right motives but seems to be out-of-control. As such, he’s the perfect guy to work with other con artists. You get the feeling that Richie could easily work the other side of the street.

The beauty of the high stakes caper in “American Hustle” is the unpredictable nature of the parties involved. On either side of the law, it’s hard to tell where to draw the line between those being conned and the ones doing the manipulation.

Though big fish like a U.S. Senator and several congressmen are ultimate targets, the sting operation centers first on charismatic New Jersey mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), whose motives appear altruistic when he seeks funding for an Atlantic City casino.

Mayor Polito, though not adverse to a little piece of the pie, really wants to generate jobs and income for a blighted area of the state. Unfortunately, he gets ensnared in a scheme of easy bribes and bad choices.

Helping to weave the web of deceit, a Mexican-American FBI agent (Michael Pena) poses as an Arab sheik, his handlers convinced his darker skin allows him to impersonate a Middle Eastern investor. This is just one of many comical situations.

Robert De Niro shows up as a lieutenant for Meyer Lansky and the Miami Beach mafia, anxious to tap into the potential lucrative business of a legitimate casino, as long as the palms of politicos can get greased to expedite permits and licenses.

As the scamming of crime lords and politicians gets ratcheted up, Irving’s alcoholic, loose cannon wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), her hair swept like a hornet’s nest, enters the fray, manipulating Irving and one of the mafia goons out of Florida.

Speaking of scheming behavior, Sydney (or I should Lady Edith) is also busy manipulating Richie into an emotional tailspin, convincing him that she’s ready to ditch Irving. Nothing is as it seems.

“American Hustle” is a delightful merry-go-round of con jobs and schemes, leading to plenty of unhinged behavior with deliciously comic outcomes. Director David O. Russell has come up with a story where the fiction is even stranger, and certainly funnier, than the truth.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.