'American Hustle' (R)

“American Hustle” is a puzzle—an intricate, polyester dream of a film that will draw you into an indescribable weave of fact and fiction.

One of the first things we encounter in this weave is Christian Bale’s comb over. He plays a paunchy street-level sharp who ostensibly runs dry cleaning shops. But he sees greater fortune in cheesy cons, bad loans and counterfeit art. Bale’s character encounters his match at a party. Amy Adams takes on the role of another example of the undercurrent, a cheat with false English charm and a knack for spilling from her low cut tops.

But the film is not a dip be...