The Hustle – Film Review
Perhaps Chris Addison is in truth a talented filmmaker, but the Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson lead The Hustle is definitely not the film that proves it.
Josephine Chesterfield (Anne Hathaway) is a glamorous, seductive British woman who has a penchant for defrauding gullible men out of their money. Into her well-ordered, meticulous world comes Penny Rust (Rebel Wilson), a cunning and fun-loving Australian woman who lives to swindle unsuspecting marks. Despite their different methods, the two grifters soon join forces for the ultimate score — a young and naive tech billionaire in the South of France.
Rebel Wilson (left) as Penny Rust and Anne Hathaway (right) as Josephine Chesterfield in The Hustle (2019)
By far, the number one thing a comedy should do is make you laugh and put a smile on your face. Comedy is a genre that I find myself visiting quite often because, depending on whether or not the film is genuinely good, it can put your mind at ease and make you feel good. Who doesn’t love a great laugh every once in a while? If you were getting your hopes up that The Hustle would do that for you, you are not in for luck. This is sadly one of the weakest comedies in quite some time.
Comedy is different for everybody – certain people will laugh at various different things, and for me, my favorite type of humor is witty humor. Jokes that make you actually pause and think about something such as an extremely awkward situation. But even still, I think most people will find that the comedy here just does not work. It unfortunately comes across as cringe-worthy and some of the sequences come off a bit over the top.
A large portion as to why is because of the performances by Hathaway and Wilson. These are two actresses that I think are incredibly talented and both of them have been in amazing features in the past, but here, they do not get that much to do. Their performances are not necessarily weak, but the script that they are given to work with gave them nothing to do, and sometimes the lines they have to deliver can be too weird.
Rebel Wilson (left) as Penny Rust and Anne Hathaway (right) as Josephine Chesterfield in The Hustle (2019)
It is also a movie with a story that was greatly uninteresting and I never once found myself invested in the events that were unfolding on screen. When I go to the movie theatre, I always want to feel like I have been swept away into a whole other world with the characters. I want to genuinely have a blast when at the movies, but if I am going to be honest, I would have much rather been somewhere else than watching The Hustle.
Filled with cringe-worthy, weak humor and drastically wasted performances, The Hustle is one of the most forgettable comedies in years.
Overall Grade: D-
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 on appeal for crude sexual content and language
Cast: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Dean Norris
Directed by: Chris Addison
Distributed by: United Artists Releasing (United States), Universal Pictures (International)
Running Time: 94 minutes