The Hustle

The Hustle

Starring Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Ingrid Oliver

Directed by Chris Addison

The Story:
Penny Rust (Rebel Wilson) is a small-time con artist who swindles men out of money after catfishing them online, and decides to go on vacation to France and see if she can swindle men there too.  Meanwhile, French resident Josephine Chesterfield (Anne Hathaway) is a high-stakes con artist who's conned men out of millions using her unique brand of artistry that uses all her feminine wiles to play men like fiddles.  The two women meet on a train, and only later does Penny find out Josephine is also a con artist - but someone she wants to be like.

Josephine agrees to train Penny and take her on as a partner, and the two women combine their different talents to con men out of millions in diamond rings, but when Josephine doesn't give Penny her cut, the women decide to go their separate ways - until they form a wager to see who's the better con artist by conning Internet millionaire Thomas Westerburg (Alex Sharp) first, with the winner getting $500,000 and the right to stay in France and continue their conning ways.  The women go for broke and may the best con artist win.

The Synopsis:
I've never had an issue with gender-swapping films, because why would I?  I don't have any vested interest if they succeed or fail, and why not see what women can do with a project previously run by men?  "The Hustle" is a gender-swapped remake of the classic Michael Caine/Steve Martin comedy caper "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (which is itself a remake of the 1964 Marlon Brando/David Niven film "Bedtime Story"), and features two of this generation's best female actresses at the helm - so much to my surprise I found that the film was rather devoid of any genuine laughs, the story having been very thinly written that these acclaimed actresses had nothing to really sink their teeth into, and resorts itself to a very cheap "Ocean's Eleven" wannabe that's easily forgotten once the credits begin rolling.

The film is a typical battle of the classes, as we see two con-women duking it out to beat their mark first- one using finesse, grace, and a litany of fancy dresses; the other using sidewalk tricks, physical and self-defecating humor, and playing to the man's desire to be a hero.  The film does address an interesting aspect that's actually true in most cases - a man will never believe he's being conned by a woman because they don't think a woman would be smarter than he is.  This could've had a load of potential to really take the film to new heights and make it something more, but unfortunately this golden nugget was wasted by basically proving that exact point: instead of the women working together, they try to one-up the other in order to come out on top in varying levels of insane antics that even the man with one brain cell could see through.

Anne Hathaway plays Josephine Chesterfield, the high-end con artist who's sophisticated, intelligent, and always one step ahead - mostly.  She carries herself with a demeanor of superiority, a woman who's fluent in different languages, accents, and fashion tastes while also being more than capable of taking care of herself.  This is Hathaway's bread and butter, and she effortlessly puts her natural charm to work which actually saves the film from becoming the bottom-of-the-barrel $5.00 Wal-Mart trash bin, but not by much.  Her work in "Ocean's 8" is much more deserving for a viewing than this.

Likewise, Rebel Wilson uses her typical Rebel Wilson charm to play a character seemingly hand-designed for Rebel Wilson, an overweight woman who's secretly self-conscious of her appearance but also is never afraid to use physical humor and think-on-your-toes intelligence to deliver some laughs.  While she does ham it up to get some chuckles, her antics go from being endearing and funny to groan-some and tiring depending on the bit, and never seems to really balance itself as a whole.

Some of the funniest bits come when the two women train, and even then it doesn't make a lick of sense and doesn't come up any other time in the film.  We never see Rebel Wilson having to throw a knife, or Anne Hathaway performing parkour over a couch, but we get an elongated montage of them trying to do those things - which basically I'm convinced was thrown in to give Rebel Wilson some laughs because, as she normally does, this is what she does best.

The cons are so outlandish and insane that I wonder if they spent more money on the props and costumes than the money they make from their mark, and again they don't make a cohesive sense to anything involving the plot, but rather as a way to pad an already short run-time before we get to the real meat of the film: when the women decide to work against one another (because they're con artists, they can't trust anyone) and target a youthful mark out of $500,000.  This mark is played with Mark Zuckerberg-perfection by Alex Sharp, who's every bit a tech genius as he is a lovestruck boy, and infuses a lot of heart into the film.

The women decide to go at it using their classic training: Penny fakes being blind while Josephine uses her female charm, and their antics only exist to one-up the other, resulting in some understandably comedic moments but none that really connect for more than just a few seconds.  Basically, if you see the trailer, you see the funniest bits in this con artist of a movie trying to be something its not.

The Summary:
With the wasted talents of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson, "The Hustle" doesn't just hustle the mark in the film, but the audience as well, providing a few chuckles and giggles but nothing worth the ticket admission.

The Score: C