As the summer film season has officially started, it has been an over all lackluster beginning. Even "Avengers: Endgame" was technically in the latter of the dead zone, however there has been a few better films since, there has been way too many more that need work. "The Hustle" is one that definitely had issues--it wasn't a bad film, but not a great one either.
Rebel Wilson and Anne Hathaway have winning chemistry as a pair of con artists plying their trade in a stunning seaside town in south of France. Josephine Chesterfield (Hathaway) is a glamorous, seductive Brit with a sprawling home in Beaumont-sur-Mer and a penchant for defrauding gullible wealthy men from all corners of the world. Into her well-ordered, meticulously moneyed world bursts Penny Rust (Wilson), an Aussie who is free-form and fun-loving as Josephine is calculated and cunning. Where Penny amasses wads of cash by ripping off her marks in neighborhood bars, Josephine fills her safe with expensive, valuable jewelry. When they ultimately combine their efforts, Josephine's butler, Albert (Nicholas Woodeson) and her friend, Brigitte (Ingrid Oliver) joining the fray they become needed in order to make more complex cons work.
Others to round out the cast are Alex Sharp as Thomas Westerbury, Dean Norris as Howard Bacon, Timothy Simons as Jeremy, Douggie McMeekin as Jason and Casper Christensen as Mathias.
This was directed by virtual newcomer to feature films, Chris Addison (TV series). Even though this filmmaker has directed a number of TV shows, one would conclude that it should be enough to pull off a feature film. Well, this certainly had continuity, but the characters seemed a bit stiff in their approach. Certainly not bad directing, but could have been better. Hopefully his "Hallelujah!" which is in pre-production will be a better vehicle for him. It puzzles me that the film was written by mostly consummate pros in their field, however the script certainly needed help. It was written by Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer and Jac Schaeffer, and if these names look familiar, they should-- Shapiro, Henning and Launer all wrote "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" '88. This was merely the female version of 'Scoundrels', replete with the 'odd couple' roles as the high brow and lower brow con artists. All of these writers are seasoned with a plethora of experience, but whereas 'Scoundrels' had a much fresher approach to the con artist, flim flam movie material, this film produced jokes that were seemingly forced and contrite. Certainly back in the day, their projects were fraught with professionalism, however today the originality and freshness seems to be waning. Certainly, there were places that were funny and carried through strategically, but those were too few of times. I don't know--bad day at the laptop? Not sure, but suffice it to say, it might be time for these writers to retire or just try again next time. The chemistry between Hathaway and Wilson is what actually saved this more than anything thing else. The 'odd couple' approach certainly works for most comedies--this being of no exception, and these two actors did what they could to save this, but at the end of the day, a tighter, more satirical script would've worked better.
As comedies go, the teaming of Hathaway and Wilson was a stroke of genius, but as scripts go, this needed work. I would feel terrible that such seasoned writers would have to retire just because they had a bad day at the laptop, but either they've already done "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and this is over-kill, or maybe there were a bit too many writers here--too many hands in the pot if you will. Either way, the trailer looked so promising--it's just so perplexing that the final product couldn't have matched.
Out of 4 Stars: 2 Rated: PG-13 93mins.
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