Review | The Hustle film review: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson play con artists in awful remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
- Film recreates set pieces from 1988 Michael Caine-Steve Martin movie and its David Niven-Marlon Brando predecessor, yet contrives to strips them of all comedy
- The script is woeful, and the lack of chemistry between the leads pitiful. That Wilson gets her only laugh posing as a sack of garbage says everything
1/5 stars
Following recent gender-flipped remakes Ghostbusters and Ocean’s 8 , Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson look to put a feminist spin on the 1988 hit comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, as a pair of duelling con artists vying for control of a French Riviera town. All efforts to inject their underhand profiteering with #MeToo era revenge motives are scuppered, however, by a pitiful lack of chemistry between the two leads and a script woefully bereft of genuine laughs.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels cast Michael Caine opposite Steve Martin in a direct remake of 1964’s Bedtime Story, which pitted David Niven against Marlon Brando, as they targeted the same wealthy young woman. The Hustle similarly hews very close to its source material, recreating many of the most enduring set pieces from both its predecessors almost beat for beat – yet somehow wrings the material dry of all its hilarious potential.
Blame for this flagrant crime against comedy must fall at the feet of Rebel Wilson. The antipodean star, who caught her break in Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect, produces as well as stars, and successfully won a legal battle against the US ratings board to secure the lewd comedy a lower rating.
Her tiresome, one-joke “fat-but-fun” shtick is a reminder that she possesses neither the acting talent not comedic chops of contemporaries Melissa McCarthy and Amy Schumer, who she tries so desperately to emulate. To score her biggest laugh, Wilson poses as a sack of garbage, and it works – which tells you everything you need to know about this nauseating enterprise.