Film Review: The Hustle

Director: Chris Addison

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp

Running times: 93 mins

We meet our trickster Penny Rust (Wilson) up to no good swindling unsuspecting fellows out of cash while avoiding the cops. Seeking bigger fish to fry, Penny ventures further afield to the South of France, where the majority of the film is set, searching for rich European men to swindle. Here we run into Josephine Chesterfield (Hathaway) a swindler of the richest of men as she lives in the lap of luxury.

What ensues is an amusing truf war between the two women, the prize, the swathes of rich men to scam that pass through the town of Beaumont-sur-mer. As we progress through the movie we watch the pair in a tit-for-tat series of exchanges as they try to cement their claim to the area by hooking a half a million-dollar tech billionaire.

While Hathaway and Wilson provide solid comedic performances throughout something in the script and storyline fails to satisfy the potential in the film. Several times over the course of the film it feels like we are watching a rehashing of the same scenes and the story feels more circular than linear, as if we have progressed only to where the film began.

Although the final twist saves the film from falling completely short of its potential it seems to be completely crammed into the final minutes in an effort to ensure some sort of progression in the story. This final twist does advance the chemistry between our two leads and sets the film up nicely but not too blatantly for a sequel.

While this film certainly doesn’t reach its comedic potential, it is an entertaining light-hearted watch, but I probably wouldn’t watch it again.

Did you know? In the scene where Penny first meets Josephine on a train heading for southern France, Josephine is reading The  Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Alex Sharp, who co-stars in the film, made his Broadway and acting debut in the play that was the basis for that novel.

The Hustle is in cinemas now