Film Review: The Hustle (US, 2019) is a swindle with very little payoff
Film Review: The Hustle (US, 2019) is a swindle with very little payoff fter several release date pushbacks and a title change (its working title was Nasty Women, a now outdated reference to one of Donald Trump’s many insults thrown at Hillary Clinton), The Hustle finally plods into cinemas this week. A female-centric remake of 1988’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (which was itself a remake of 1964’s Bedtime Story), the film attempts to flip the script and allow the women to take the spotlight as the shrewd con women in charge. While there is great chemistry between the two leads, Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway, and the occasional moments of hilarious mismatched absurdity and physical humour, the overall product is a relatively disappointing affair. With a neverending series of gags that mostly fall on their face and a muddled screenplay that can’t quite pinpoint its true intention, The Hustle is a swindle with very little payoff. In a New York City bar, we meet crass, “low-re