There is something sweet and safe about con artists. The con is always a glittering battle of wits between beautiful people set in swish locations where the sky is blue and the sea a calm sheet of azure (I always wanted to use that word). Men in their sharp suits spar with women in a symphony of silk, accessorised with sparkling jewels and outsize sunglasses.
The con movie is a smooth ride on a private jet. The Hustle is most definitely not that film. A remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), which in turn was a remake of Bedtime Story (1964), The Hustle features Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson as two con artists Josephine and Penny, preying on stupid, rich men on the French Riviera. Josephine is refined, Penny not so much, they fight, they join forces, they try to outwit each other and an internet billionaire — just recounting the plot is wearisome.
Wilson, who has also produced the film, and Hathaway sleepwalk through their roles while Alex Sharp as Zuckerberg type billionaire is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The Hustle has nothing going for it except for Josephine’s lovely seaside villa. One would be better off watching Steve Martin and Michael Caine spar in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels or Madhuri Dixit and Anil Kapoor in Rakesh Roshan’s Khel .
