The Hustle

Starring: Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, Ingrid Oliver, Nicholas Woodeson

Director: Chris Addison

Based on the 1988 film "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" written by Stanley Shapiro & Paul Henning and Dale Launer

Needing to find new ground to run her small time cons, Penny (Rebel Wilson) heads to France to the lovely coastal town Beaumont-sur-Mer. Unfortunately for her, the town already has its resident con-woman, Josephine (Anne Hathaway), who, with assistance from her servant Albert (Nicholas Woodeson) and the local Police inspector Brigitte (Ingrid Oliver), runs cons on wealthy, unsuspecting men. After Josephine realizes she won't be able to get rid of Penny, she instead takes her under her wing to teach her the tools of the trade. Soon, the women find themselves at odds again when they bet who can swindle tech millionaire Thomas (Alex Sharp) first with the loser having to leave Beaumont-sur-Mer for good.

Being a remake of a movie that I greatly adore, I was hoping the gender swapped cast as well as new writer would be able to inject something new into a classic for the modern audience. It's a disappointment to report that outside of the leads now being female and a couple of new jokes being added, this is a beat for beat remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. I'd even go out on a limb to say that film is more feminist than this remake. Without going into spoiler territory for those who don't know, the ending doesn't work at all when the leads are female and actually becomes pretty problematic.

Because not much is fundamentally changed from the original, this feels like a waste of time. Three of the four credited writers are the writers of the original film and have top billing over new writer Jac Schaeffer. Outside of a few jokes, it's hard to tell what she contributed. Shame, because she is a strong up-and-coming female writer with some big projects on the horizon (Black Widow, WandaVision).

Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson try harder than one would expect them to with uninspiring material. They share a genuine chemistry and keep the film watchable. Some of the classic bits still work thanks to their comedic timing and they keep the short 94 minute run time bearable.

I hope when Hollywood thinks about remaking classic films, they put more effort into making it fresh and new. Updating by simply gender-swapping and placing it in a modern setting isn't enough and I think audiences are savvy enough to recognize that fact. It also bums me out that people might not go back and check out the much better original film.