The Hustle is a 2019 American comedy film directed by Chris Addison and written by Stanley Shapiro, Paul Henning, Dale Launer, and Jac Schaeffer. It is a female-centered remake of the 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which is itself a remake of the 1964 film Bedtime Story. The film stars Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Alex Sharp, and Dean Norris, and follows two women who set out to con an internet millionaire.
The film was theatrically released in the United States on May 10, 2019, by United Artists Releasing, while Universal Pictures distributes the film in international markets. It received mostly negative reviews and grossed $98 million worldwide.
Plot
Penny is a small-time con artist who traps men into giving her money, whereas Josephine is a sophisticated con artist who cons the world’s richest men out of their money, Their idol is the legendary unknown con artist Medusa. The two con artists meet for the first time while travelling on the French Riviera. Not willing to take any chance with any competition, Josephine has Penny arrested, after which Josephine pays her bail and advises Penny to leave the country. Penny discovers that she was conned by Josephine but begs her to teach her. Josephine and Penny execute a complicated con act against multiple rich men called The Lord of the Rings, stealing engagement rings. The plan works but Josephine refuses to pay Penny because she’s an apprentice. Penny and Josephine wager Penny’s entire net worth of $500,000 using billionaire Thomas Westerburg, the creator of a tech app called YaBurnt, as their victim.
Penny initially gains the upper hand by pretending to be blind, something that Thomas could relate to because his grandmother was also blind. Josephine, however, pretends to be a prominent eye doctor to “treat” Penny using unorthodox methods as a ruse to get close to Thomas. Penny uses sympathy gained by a few women at the club to ambush Josephine in the bathroom while she spends alone time with Thomas, but she learns that Thomas is not a billionaire and that he intends to use the last amount of his money for her instead. She tells Josephine that the wager is off, having developed some feelings for him. Josephine changes the wager of stealing Thomas’ money to stealing his feelings instead. To hold her up, Josephine tells the women Penny lied about being blind, and they glue her hand to the wall.
Josephine later shows up at Thomas’ hotel room, attempting to seduce him. Penny breaks free from the wall and learns from a hotel server that Josephine never left his room, which makes her assume that they have had sex. The next morning, Thomas admits to Penny that he paid for her eye care, but he must leave France. Penny gives him $500,000 back via Venmo, and he leaves in a plane. Josephine catches up to her, having admitted that she and Thomas never had sex and that he conned her into investing $500,000 into his company. Penny realizes that she had also been conned by him; Thomas reveals via text that his grandmother was the original Medusa, having inherited her title, though his feelings for Penny were genuine.
A fortnight later, Penny is leaving Josephine’s residence. Out of sympathy, Josephine gives her the money from their “Lord of the Rings” con acts. Their farewell is cut short when Thomas returns while in the middle of a con act against wealthy tourists in which he includes the two women. They reluctantly go along with his act but holds $2,000,000 against him before they trust him. Thomas suggests they work together to make even more money, which Josephine and Penny agree to. They are then shown committing a successful con during Christmas holidays, getting along, with Penny and Thomas resuming their relationship.
A post-credits scene shows both women in one of their earlier “Lord of the Rings” con acts.
Cast
Anne Hathaway as Josephine Chesterfield
Rebel Wilson as Penny Rust
Alex Sharp as Thomas Westerburg
Dean Norris as Howard Bacon
Timothy Simons as Jeremy
Ingrid Oliver as Brigitte Desjardins
Nicholas Woodeson as Albert
Rob Delaney as Todd
Tim Blake Nelson as Portnoy
Reviews
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