The Hustle (2019)

The Hustle is a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) but in place of Steve Martin and Michael Caine, we have the female equivalent in the form of Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway. I have to admit that I have no recollection of the earlier movie in order for me to make any comparison, but what I can say is that this new version is a miss for me.

On the surface, its premise is hilarious. Pitting the contrasting styles of Rebel Wilson who is obese, crude and tactless, against Anne Hathaway who looks gorgeous, and behaves like high society, as con artistes forced to work together as a team, offers unimaginable scope for good comedy. Unfortunately, the smiles and laughs diminishes as the film progresses. For a story that's supposed to be about clever con artists, the various sting and so call hustle depicted were ridiculous and unbelievable. Hardly clever enough to fool anyone in real life, much less the seemingly endless supply of super rich victims. I have to admit that I haven't seen any movies with Rebel Wilson in it, so this first time exposure of her class or rather, classless comedy routine is funny ... initially, until it wears off because it soon feels like you are hearing or watching the same joke over and over again. Anne Hathaway too is wasted here. While she is obviously enjoying herself in this relatively undemanding role for an Academy Award winner, her high society heavy British accent act also begins to wear thin.

All in, I would say that while I do admit the movie managed to make me smile and laugh a little, it ultimately failed to deliver on its promise of a good time. I would say it is at best, mildly funny and amusing but could have been so much better if it had a better and more clever plot to compliment the talent and energy. The end credits teaser that appears right after the credit roll, was strangely not funny and a rehash of a scene earlier which wasn't particularly funny either. I would have thought sharing a series of bloopers while the credits roll accompanied by that great Meghan Trainor song (Badass Woman) would have been more amusing. Why is it that all these bad movies always have such great songs at the end of the movie??