The Hustle (2019) * *

Directed by:  Chris Addison

Starring:  Anne Hathaway, Rebel Wilson, Ingrid Oliver, Alex Sharp, Nicholas Woodeson

Lord knows Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson expend a great deal of effort in The Hustle, a virtual remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) except the con artists are now women.    Their energy is for naught, because The Hustle adds hardly any surprises.   Hathaway assumes the Michael Caine role, while Wilson is Martin.   Truth be told, there is more slapstick in this remake, which is a sure sign of desperation.

Penny Rust (Wilson) is a small-time con artist whose scams include trying to bilk dunderheaded men out of cash to pay for her sister's ransom.    The fictional sister was kidnapped a la Taken (groan). 
Soon Penny descends upon the French Riviera paradise of Beaumont Sur Mer, in which Josephine (Hathaway) is the resident grifter swindling rich men out of their cash and jewels through more elaborate schemes.    The local police chief (Oliver) is on the take, so Josephine can ply her trade freely.    Once Penny arrives, Josephine resents her cutting in on the action, and after trying in vain to force Penny out of town, reluctantly teams with her.

Josephine is sophisticated, elegant, and classy.   Penny is, well, not.   Josephine attempts to teach Penny some manners, although considering Penny's role in the scams, this is totally unnecessary. 
These scenes are simply an excuse to have Wilson trip over couches, crash into walls, slip on floors, or have heavy things fall on her.    Soon, Penny tires of Josephine's unpaid tutelage and establishes a wager:  Whichever woman can extract $500,000 from a hapless tech millionaire named Thomas (Sharp) first will stay in town.    The other will leave.    The millionaire's first scene in the movie is of him falling into a swimming pool, just to establish his clumsiness.

Sharp is the gender-swapped version of Glenne Headly's role in the 1988 movie, and he is simply not as convincing a mark.    He is such an over-the-top dolt (with a shaky American accent to boot) that
we wonder how he could be successful in any of his endeavors, either present or future.   He's as
conspicuous as a cockroach walking across a white rug.   Headly was more subtle in her guilelessness, and wasn't quite the easy target the guys made her out to be.   She was pushed, but never tipped, to her would-be bilkers mounting frustration. 

Penny tries to engage Thomas' sympathy by posing as a woman with hysterical blindness, and Josephine then counteracts by posing as a supposedly world famous doctor who can cure her.   The comic possibilities with blindness aren't as rich as Steve Martin faking his way into Glenne Headly's heart as a wheelchair bound paraplegic in Scoundrels.    A french fry dipped in toilet water is employed as a method to snap Penny out of her psychosomatic condition.    Gross.

Hathaway and Wilson are charming actors, and they can't be faulted.    Instead, we wonder if the entire undertaking was truly worth it.    Gender swapping roles is common now, and that's fine if you have somewhere new to go with the material.    Watching The Hustle is like watching a local theater cast trudge their way through a classic play.