The Hustle: Film Review

Synopsis

The Hustle follows the story of two con women, Penny (Rebel Wilson) and Josephine (Anne Hathaway), in the French Riviera. With Josephine taking Penny under her wing, the two women make a bet to see who can con $500,000 out of a tech "millionaire," Thomas Westerburg (Alex Sharp). 

Review

The film is painfully underwritten and poorly written.  Almost none of the jokes land.  Most (I should say all) of Hathaway's jokes fall flat (20-80 hit to miss ratio). Luckily, Wilson does more of the heavy lifting comedy-wise (40-60 percentage) but most of her material is scattered double entendres and vulgar sex jokes (right, in a PG-13 movie) that further dishevel an already disheveled story. Overall, 25% of the jokes hit and the rest miss HARD. However, I'll never get tired of watching her comically in pain. There isn't enough script (or time) to fully flesh out character arcs. It's almost exactly the same as its predecessor Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (if you've seen it, you know exactly what will happen). The one thing the I will say about the performances is this: Wilson and Hathaway both committed to their roles, but it comes across as bad chemistry (because the characters are so different). On a different note, the film fails to make a statement about women, aside from the gender-swap. The marketing behind the film branded it as this feminist, pro-women film, but its never put into action. The characters' actions are well-intentioned (exploiting men who have wronged them), but that's it. Nonetheless, I'm still a sucker for a decent (albeit immediately forgettable) heist "comedy."