The Hustle review: Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson bring on the con in this gender-swapped remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
There is always something inherently satisfying about watching a good con movie. Seeing the scheme set up, and of course waiting for the eventual rug pull, provides a certain cathartic thrill, one in which you’re both in on the con and duped by it at the same time. It is a weird proposition, then, to be faced with a con that you’ve experienced before.
The Hustle is a remake of Frank Oz’s 1988 Michael Caine/Steve Martin comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which itself was loosely based on a screenplay for Marlon Brando/David Niven caper from 1964, Bedtime Story. It follows two con-artists, in this case the brash rookie, Penny (Wilson) and the refined and experienced Josephine (Hathaway). When Penny ends up stepping on Josephine’s South of France turf, the two set a wager; to swindle $500 million from a young app-developer (Alex Sharp).
Much of the marketing for The Hustle leans in to the gender-swapped nature of this remake, seemingly positioning the film as one which takes the set up of its predecessors and sees the two con women join forces to trick men who have wronged women. While this certainly seems the M.O. for the initial, much breezier and funnier opening, that promise quickly falls away.
What initially seemed like a remake bound to deliver more of a feminist statement ends up becoming a pretty uninspired and flat retread of the Frank Oz film that came before it. There’s no attempt to change up the nature of the rug pulls or the broader beats of its predecessor, meaning that it becomes an increasingly predictable and rather lifeless remake that abandons a more modern approach for something that just feels a little half-hearted.
What keeps the ship afloat as its sinking becomes increasingly inevitable is the energy of its leads. While Wilson’s schtick is often responsible for most of the bum notes when it comes to comedy, she plays off Hathaway very well. Hathaway in turn rolls with the punches with a very game performance that channels the conniving suaveness of Michael Caine’s performance, but blends it with own brand of wide-eyed enthusiasm.
Related: Trailer: The Hustle with Anne Hathaway & Rebel Wilson
Chris Addison, making his feature debut, certainly keeps things moving at a crisp enough pace (gotta love a comedy that clocks in at an hour and half), and the south of France looks effortlessly handsome, brought to further peppy life by Anne Dudley’s playfully old-fashioned score. But it is all in service of a comedy that just falls painfully flat at far too many points.
There’s nothing more entertaining in the movie-going experience than watching a comedy in a full movie theatre land their gags to gut-busting effect. However, on the flip side of that there is nothing more uncomfortable than enduring one that fails to generate much of a reaction. The Hustle unfortunately falls into the latter. This remake fails to give an old con new life, delivering a re-heated product that has lost much of its comedic turns and tricks.
The Hustle review by Andrew Gaudion, May 2019.
The Hustle is released in cinemas on 10th May 2019.