The Hustle is one of those films that puts critics in difficulty: for the general public to work, but it’s enough to scratch a bit of the shelf to find underneath something very… dirty rotten. We do not say more and the film promotion campaign should not do it, as it could hurt a lot of the pleasure of the audience already familiar with the original production.
Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson make a good team in The Hustle. The first is Josephine, who lives in a beautiful villa on the French Riviera. It does not matter that, helped by the Alfred butler and a corrupt policeman, rounds off his accounts screaming men more or less depraved or immoral. The reverse of sophisticated and verse Josephine is Lonnie (Wilson), an overweight Australian specializing in small scams. In order not to ruin their mutual business, the two make a bet: the first to trick a 500,000-dollar internet guru will remain the rider on the Riviera, and the other will take its tops. Obviously, both are ready to anything to win.
If for some people The Hustle will look fresh and original, others will quickly understand that it’s a movie they’ve already seen. It is natural for critics to label Bastards as a lack of originality (as it is, in fact), but at the same time too many of them forget that the purpose for which spectators enter the cinema is to amuse themselves. And sometimes the jokes, if not the ups and downs, work even a second time. Even though the tone is current, the fact that the film is copying step by step, the moments in the 1964 and 1988 films are a gigantic black ball.
What the The Hustle saves is Rebel Wilson. Australian is totally unleashed (he’s the producer of the film) and does not get back from anything to amuse. Her geniuses, which are completely released, continue to take Anne Hathaway’s face, much less interesting and sometimes even false in the role of Josephine, but the interactions between the two actresses and the under-belt battles with which their characters bless each other make the story recycled to look like how alive.
There are a few things that The Hustle has in addition to original movies. First of all, a feminist perspective on the power relations between men and women. “Why do you think we can trick the men?” Josephine asked at one point. The answer is more relevant than you could expect, as is the discussion about the perfect physical obsession and superficiality of the present human interactions. From this point of view, you can hardly find a more modern and useful character than Lonnie, but what a pity it is that it is built on something profoundly non-original like The Hustle. Obviously, as we are in 2019, jokes with various objects in various holes abound …
If you manage to ignore the feeling that you have seen the movie at least once, you have all the chances to get into the madness of Lonnie and Josephine. And if you have not seen the films recycled by The Hustle you have every chance to have fun with them. Otherwise, you will most likely feel cheated.
Watch the trailer below:
