Director
Chris Addison
(Feature film debut)

Stars
Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp and Tim Blake Nelson

In 1964, a comedy starring David Niven, Marlon Brando and Shirley Jones called BEDTIME STORY was released. Then, in 1988 it was remade with a change of title to DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, which starred Michael Caine, Steve Martin and Glenne Headly. Now, we have this remake of a remake, whose sole motivation is seemingly to handover roles previously occupied by male actors to a leading female cast.

Before they meet, Penny (Rebel Wilson) and Josephine (Anne Hathaway) are serial scam artists whose prey are easy, sleazy and superficial men. After spontaneously sharing a train carriage together, Penny finds Josephine and requests to be recruited by her. Impressed, but less than convinced by what she has witnessed of Penny’s work so far, Josephine agrees to trial Penny with outcomes that threaten to unmask her true profession and tarnish her sophisticated reputation in the public eye.

Perhaps the only time that THE HUSTLE is just passable, yet still very ordinary at best, is right at the beginning when the synopsis I’ve described above is unfolding. From there, I’m afraid the chuckles start to wither and the quality in all aspects goes on a downwards slither.

Though I’m sure that many fingers of blame will be pointing towards the actresses, we must first acknowledge the abysmal writing they’re given to work with here. The plot of this film makes several truly preposterous moves, the script is filled with mostly woeful dialogue and features scenarios and gags that are horribly outdated. Some of those scenarios and gags do provoke occasional laughter, but a considerable portion of these are noticeably shoddily executed. With its reliance on the desperately thoughtless material failing to meet expectations and standards, greater dependency is consequently thrust onto the shoulders of its on-screen star power. Unfortunately, the extra emphasis given to Rebel Wilson’s narrower comedic talents does overwhelm her performance far sooner than co-star Anne Hathaway’s. In fact, THE HUSTLE has proven something to me. It has solidified my opinion that Rebel Wilson contributes to part of an ensemble cast quite nicely (BRIDESMAIDS, PITCH PERFECT), but lacks the broadness in comedic style and isn’t able to consistently execute what she does at the level required for a lead role such as this. As one of the producers of this comedy, she must simply claim more responsibility for its shortcomings.

Should THE HUSTLE garner a more lukewarm reception from you, it will mostly be due to Anne Hathaway’s precision. Well, at least until she has to do something she should never again attempt – a German accent!

1 ½ stars 


Viewer Discretion
M (Crude sexual humour and coarse language)

Trailer
THE HUSTLE

Moviedoc thanks Universal Pictures for the invite to the screening of this film.

Opens nationally on May 9

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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