The ‘art of the con’ has been fruitful movie fodder for some years now.
Movies such as the Ocean’s Eleven series and its all-female spin-off Ocean’s Eight have proved film fans love a little light-hearted larceny, especially when the humour sits alongside the heists.
This female-centred remake of the 1988 Michael Caine and Steve Martin hit Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (itself a remake of the 1964 film Bedtime Story, which starred David Niven and Marlon Brando) features the top-notch casting of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson as a mismatched pair of con-artists who ply their trade on men.
It’s amusing without hitting hilarious, but at least allows Hathaway (one of the ‘team’ in Ocean’s Eight) to play around with a selection of accents, get to wear some cool outfits and essentially play the straight woman to Wilson’s larger-than-life grifter.
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Meanwhile, Wilson is one of the movie’s producers, which may account for her getting some of the best lines and snagging the love interest.
The Hustle opens nicely, introducing us to the different ‘styles’ of the two women.
Wilson’s downmarket Lonnie tries to con gullible men in bars by showing them pictures of her gorgeous ‘friend’, while Hathaway’s posh Josephine works the ritzy casinos, and is shown fleecing a member of the Belgian aristocracy out of a valuable bracelet.
But when Lonnie sets her sights on the wealthy South of France town where Josephine lives and ‘works’, the scene is set for a clash of the cons.
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Eventually they decide to team up – cue a series of training exercises for Wilson’s character such as knife-throwing, strenuous exercises and even opening a bottle of champagne – and they work well together on a sting which involves Josephine getting engaged to millionaires and Lonnie posing as her challenged and challenging sister.
All well and good, until Lonnie starts to want a bigger cut of the action and they end up falling out.
The film loses its way – and its feminist theme – when the pair end up competing to try to scam a nerdy tech-billionaire/love interest.
And although there are a few good gags, The Hustle potters towards a predictable ending rather than ever being daring and stylish, let alone laugh-out-loud funny.
