Just in time for next week’s release of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the first Jennifer Lawrence-centered clip from director David O. Russell’s new film American Hustle has been released online.  The story is based on the Abscam sting operation that uncovered widespread political corruption in the late 1970s.  In this clip, we see Lawrence’s character putting something in the microwave covered in aluminum foil, then railing against the new contraption to Christian Bale after it explodes and catches fire.  Lawrence is unsurprisingly great in the clip, and many are eager to finally catch a glimpse of American Hustle given that Russell’s last film, Silver Linings Playbook, was a major awards season player and nabbed Lawrence her first Oscar.

Hit the jump to watch the clip, which contains NSFW language.  The film also stars Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams, Louis C.K., Michael Pena, and Jack JonesAmerican Hustle opens in limited release on December 13th before going wide on December 18th.

Via MTV.

Here’s the official synopsis for American Hustle:

A fictional film set in the alluring world of one of the most stunning scandals to rock our nation, American Hustle tells the story of brilliant con man Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale), who along with his equally cunning and seductive British partner Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams) is forced to work for a wild 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.

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