PLOT: Two con-artists (Anne Hathaway & Rebel Wilson, plying their trade on the French Riviera, each set their sights on the same mark – a shy tech genius (Alex Sharp) with a soft spot for women in need.
REVIEW: For those not in the know, THE HUSTLE is a remake of the Steve Martin/ Michael Caine eighties comedy classic DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS. That, in turn, was itself a remake of a pretty bad Marlon Brando/ David Niven farce called BEDROOM STORY, with Caine, in his autobiography, convincingly stating that only bad movies should be remade, never good ones (a rule he broke when he showed up in Stallone’s GET CARTER remake). Given that DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS is pretty great as far as comedies from its era go, THE HUSTLE had an uphill battle to climb from the get-go, with the promise that given a gender swap, it would stand on its own two feet.
However, the people behind THE HUSTLE made a few really big mistakes along the way and despite two name leads; this absolutely pales in the shadow of its predecessor. The two fatal mistakes are this- one that the movie follows DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS too closely, lifting entire scenes, and two – that at least one of the leads is fatally miscast. The one that’s miscast isn’t Rebel Wilson, who’s not a terrible replacement for Steve Martin. She has a certain charm and given the right vehicle, such as the recent ISN’T IT ROMANTIC, she can shine. She tries hard to wring some laughs out of this and if the movie is ever funny, it’s thanks to her.
Rather, it's Anne Hathaway who’s very poorly cast, adopting an obnoxiously fake English accent to play the haughty, suave English con so memorably played by Michael Caine in the original. If ever a role cried out for Helen Mirren, this is it. Hathaway is way too young to play Wilson’s mentor but worse, she’s never, ever funny. A gifted dramatic actress, comedy has never been her forte. Here, she has to be over-the-top, doing slapstick pratfalls and adopting a stern German doctor persona for much of the film. She’s beautiful – and she looks great in evening gowns. But, you never believe her as a wily con. Some of her attempts at humor are cringe-inducing, such as a mercifully short sequence where she pretends to be Australian. Again – she’s a wonderful performer but she needed really good material. This is threadbare stuff.
Likewise, Alex Sharp is fine as the nice guy mark they’re trying to take, but he’s outclassed by the late Glenne Headly in the original. Oddly, given that this is a somewhat feminist re-imagining, or at least it tries to be, I’d argue the original is more feminist, with Headly’s character having consistently outwitted the men in the original.
In the end, this is a disastrous reboot that should get creatives thinking about what really deserves a remake and what doesn’t. The gender swap aspect can be interesting if done well, but there has to be some real inspiration behind it. You can’t just swap the sexes and call it a new movie. THE HUSTLE more-or-less does this and goes up in flames pretty quickly.