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The Hustle (2019)


My daughter loves this movie, and a few years ago on a Greenland cruise, we must have watched it a dozen times. In fact, this might very well be the movie that I've re-watched the most out of every other movie ever made. Weird thought. 

Although I'm not going to try to convince you that it's a perfect 5-star movie, I will argue that it's really good for a comedy. Really good. The reason has a lot to do with the Anne Hathaway/Rebel Wilson pairing. They just play off of each other so well. They work together visually, too. Just something about them reminds me of Laurel and Hardy... well, maybe not, but still, I like this pairing. You would never expect Anne Hathaway to be funny, but she is perfect in this comedic role. Sometimes all she has to do is react to Wilson's over-the-top physical comedy. One facial expression from Hathaway says it all. 

Josephine (Hathaway) and Penny (Wilson) are complete opposites. One is sophisticated, the other is raunchy. One is a master of her craft, the other is a pretty good "amateur," but she still has a lot to learn. One works well with others, and the other works solo. What they both have in common: They are both hustlers out to steal money from men. 

Now Penny apparently only steals money from men who "deserve it." She tells Josephine that she only decides to take a mark's money when he has judged her on her looks. Whether that's true or not, it seems like it might be true, because when they have a competition to see who can be the first to take $500,000 from Thomas (Alex Sharp), Penny wants to back out on the bet. Why? Because Thomas has been nice to nice to her, and he claims that the $500,000 he's giving her has bankrupted him. 

Thomas might have been the first person, definitely the first man, who was ever nice to her. You can make an argument that Josephine has been nice to her, too, but for the better part of their relationship, Josephine sees Penny maybe as an amusing nuisance. She agrees to teach her how to hustle better, but that's mainly an attempt to be nice to her so that she will go away -- and so that she can have a partner to pull the Lord of the Rings scam. Thomas, on the other hand, never seems to have an ulterior motive. He's just a nice guy that wants to help Penny, asking nothing in return. 

At a runtime of 93 minutes, the movie is fast-paced and never overstays its welcome. I didn't once check my watch to see how much time was left. I mention that simply because, yes, I sometimes -- or more accurately, often -- check to see just how much time is left in a movie. Middles tend to drag, and although I will sit down to watch a 2 hour or 2+ hour movie, I do feel like longer movies "owe me" something more for my time investment. I know that's a weird thought, but that's the era we live in -- give us our story and give it to us fast. 

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

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