The Hustle

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Dean Norris, Tim Blake Nelson (uncredited), Ingrid Oliver
Directed by: Chris Addison
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two rival con artists (Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson) reluctantly team up to steal a tech millionaire's money.

Review:

Tim: I suppose I kind of see the appeal of this movie, although it never quite capitalizes on the initial appeal. I appreciated learning that this movie was a remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which was a remake of Bedtime Story. I haven't seen either of those movies, so it's a good reminder for me to track them down. I suspect both will be better than this movie. Now, it might not be totally fail to completely rail against The Hustle. Sure, it got universally bad reviews. I thought the movie was decent. Comedies are difficult to pull off and I appreciate this film making a good faith effort. It doesn't quite pan out, but I've hated movies far more than this one. I didn't feel any of that animosity- I just wish the movie would have been better.

The biggest attraction of this movie is seeing the pairing of Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson. These two couldn't be more different actresses, so it's legitimately fun seeing them together. Wilson does her usual thing. She might not have a ton of range as an actress, but she's good at what she does. She doesn't always land her jokes, but more of them hit than not. As long as you're okay with Wilson's shtick (and I usually am), you will enjoy what she does here. At some point, in some film, I'm sure I will criticize Wilson for showing up and just playing this same character in every film. At this point, though, it's still working and doesn't feel stale yet. She was mostly enjoyable here.

I wish I could say the same thing for Anne Hathaway. It's hard to think of another actress who seems so intelligent, is very talented, and yet just seems so unlikable. Hathaway just so rarely seems like the kind of person you'd want to hang out with. That might not seem important, but relatability is important and I think her demeanor hurts in that regard, too. Hathaway is someone I think I used to like, but as her career continues, it's been harder and harder to do so. Her performance here is pretty bad. The accent, how she moves, everything about her performance conveys that she's trying way too hard and the results are lackluster. It was probably amplified by Wilson since her performance is so authentic to who she is. Hathaway came across as forced. Sure, she has some great moments- she has solid comedic timing and creates periodic laughs. As a whole, though, her performance felt completely misguided. It was cringe-worthy watching her do whatever she did with this role. It simply does not work.

The story is decent. Some of it is predictable, but it does have some clever twists and turns along the way. It at least tries to throw people off (undoubtedly borrowing from the source material) and while Chris Addison's direction wasn't great, it is at least always mildly entertaining. There were some legitimately funny moments that caused me to laugh out loud. However, there simply weren't enough of these. It was too hard to care about the characters, the comedy was decent but never really solid. I didn't mind watching this movie, but it was obvious early on that this was a minor effort and was too unmemorable.

I'm not disagreeing with the majority of critics- The Hustle is quite clearly not a good movie. However, those involved are capable of much worse. Wilson elicits some laughs in a safe role that's firmly in her wheelhouse. Hathaway tried, even though it didn't work. This is not a complete failure of a comedy, it's a decent one that you wish had been a bit better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Bedtime Story, Ocean's Eight, Bachelorette