Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson hit their marks in ‘The Hustle’

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-centred 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 has grossed $77 million worldwide and received negative reviews from critics, who called it “empty”, “cheap” and a “blast of pure unfunniness.”

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 16% based on 135 reviews, with an average rating of 3.82/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “The Hustle’s stars might make an effective comedy team in a different setting, but this gender-flipped remake of a remake adds little beyond its feminine twist.”

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating “generally unfavourable reviews.” Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B−” on an A+ to F scale, while women at PostTrak (who made up 71% of the opening weekend demographic) gave it an overall positive score of 73%.