The Hustle

Available digitally today!

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Following in a trend that strikes fear in the hearts of internet fanboys everyone, "The Hustle" flips the gender roles of its main characters in this update of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." Replacing Michael Caine and Steve Martin are Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson, respectively. Both of the actresses are competent on their own, but there is just a spark that is missing onscreen in the remake.

Billed as a remake to the classic film, which itself was a remake of the Marlon Brando film, "Bedtime Story," "The Hustle" flips the script so that it is a pair of women fleecing men because it's 2019 and equality for all! Anne Hathaway is the refined Josephine, who meets the rough around the edges Penny (Rebel Wilson) on a train through France. Fearing that Penny might scare away potential prey, Josephine arranges for her to be arrested and then swoops to save her and help Penny escape the county.

Everything goes according to plan until the unwanted visitor meets one of Josephine's former marks and gets wise to who her new friend really is. From there, all bets are off as the women both work together and compete against each other, leading to a final bet over a tech millionaire, with the loser having to vacate the French Riviera.

Hathaway looks the part of the refined and cultured Josephine, even using some sort of muddled English accent. While the actress has proven many times that she can easily pull off being regal – she did get her big break playing a princess, after all – she never quite embodies the role. It feels like Hathaway is still playing her actress turned con woman character, Daphne Kluger, from 2018's "Ocean's 8." Even when she's not in the midst of a con, Hathaway is acting with a capital A, which becomes distracting at times throughout the film.

Probably the biggest hurdle for the film to overcome is that the two lead actress' chemistry just doesn't translate that well onscreen. Whether working together or competing for marks, there is a playfulness that is missing from their antics. Both of the actresses are too focused on landing their own jokes, and they aren't present enough to help the other one out. For a different pair of actresses, the material would have probably been a slam dunk, but Hathaway and Wilson struggle to find their footing.

It's a shame that the film doesn't work because writer Jac Schaeffer has done a nice job of updating "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" for a modern audience while keeping many of the same beats from its predecessor. Schaeffer has written the gender-reversed leads as strong women. They prey on men using their feminine wiles, but that doesn't mean that they automatically fall into the trope of pretending to be helpless, lost girls. Penny, in particular, uses her con game to cheat men who are garbage people – which works well, because she uses a dress made to blend in with the trash as part of her getaway – or, as she explains, men "who are as ugly on the outside as they are on the inside."

Schaeffer makes sure to pay homage to those who came before her, including Easter eggs throughout the film for fans of the previous films to pick up. It would have been hard to outdo "Scoundrels," but Schaeffer has at least shown reverence to the source material while trying to add a fresh take to it. Also impressive is that she was able to pack all of the plot points into a slender 90-minute film.

Even the worst con artists are able to pull a quick one on the right mark; which is to say that there are some laughs to be had in "The Hustle." They just happen to be few and far between – generally occurring when the film isn't dealing with the main plot. When you see a movie and the credits start to roll, the worst feeling is that you have been robbed of your time or money when it doesn't live up to your expectations. That just might be the film's greatest achievement: Conning people into paying to see it!