The Hustle

The Hustle centres on two con artists who could hardly be more different. Josephine Chesterfield works her schemes with poise and polish, while Penny Rust is loud, clumsy and far less refined. Both make a living by targeting wealthy men, and when they meet they begin as rivals competing for the same mark before settling on an arrangement: Josephine agrees to teach Penny the finer points of the trade. The prize they eventually settle on is Thomas Westerburg, a young tech entrepreneur with money to spare and little experience of being lied to. The film is a remake of the 1988 comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, with the two leads reimagined as women.

Chris Addison directed, working from a screenplay credited to Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro and Jac Schaeffer. Anne Hathaway plays Josephine and Rebel Wilson plays Penny; Wilson also produced alongside Roger Birnbaum. Alex Sharp appears as Thomas, with Dean Norris, Timothy Simons and Ingrid Oliver in supporting roles. The production drew on a budget of about 21 million dollars and took roughly 97 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb the film holds 5.5 out of 10 from around 72,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.2 from a much smaller pool of about 2,700. A critics' rating of 3.9 out of 10 from 171 reviews places it below both audience scores.