“Wait… who’s playing who right now?” The movie is messy, loud, and glittering, but underneath all that chaos, there’s this sharp cleverness that really got to me. It’s almost like watching a game of poker where everyone keeps bluffing but you can’t help but root for both players.
It starts with Josephine (Anne Hathaway) — she’s everything you imagine when you think of an untouchable con artist. She’s classy, calculated, dripping with elegance, and moves through rooms like she owns the oxygen. Every scene with her in the beginning had me glued because she wasn’t just tricking people for money; she was showing off this insane mastery of manipulation. Like that moment where she makes men believe they’re smarter than her just to get their guard down? I swear, watching her stroke egos while lining her pockets made me laugh and cringe at the same time. Because let’s be honest, we’ve all seen people fall for flattery that obvious, but Josephine makes it look like an art form.
Next comes Penny (Rebel Wilson) whose arrival is the complete reverse. She is loud, messy, impulsive, and does not work to get into scams but falls into them. Do you remember that scene at the bathroom stall? How she could persuade a man over the internet that she was a model and she is caught up in the most outrageous imaginings? I almost choked on my drink laughing. But here is a twist: she is ridiculous as Penny is but she is real in a way Penny is not. She is crude, she is crase, and maybe she is not polished, but has guts, she has. It is what makes her interesting to follow. She is not graceful with grace; she is nerve-y and, at times, nerve is everything.
When the two clash, oh my God that is when the movie actually begins. It is oil and water mixing but rather compromising, it is this explosive cocktail. Josephine glares at Penny as though she is dirt under her foot and Penny looks at Josephine as this shiny, arrogant phoney who believes she is better than all. They have an electric chemistry since it is founded on rivalry. All of the scenes between them left me as though I was watching a brother and sister who could not help but one-up the other.
A very memorable scene to me was when Josephine chooses to train Penny. At the beginning it seems like the traditional teacher and student model with Penny expected to learn classes and work around. However, the thing is that Penny does not take in all the lessons of Josephine, she bends them, turns them inside out, and applies her own dose of chaos to make them functional. Similarly to that dinner scene, in which Penny fakes blindness? That was outrageous. The manner in which she ruined the clean, elegant scam of Josephine with her frenzied improvisation left me laughing and at the same time I loved the audacity she had. it was irresponsible, fair enough, but genius in its way.
And then the stakes get higher. They make that bet — a competition over who can con a young tech millionaire first. This is where the film really tested me emotionally, because on the surface it’s just two women hustling a man, but underneath it, I saw something deeper. It became less about the money and more about proving who really belonged in the world of con artistry. Josephine was all about control and precision, while Penny was chaos and guts. Watching them circle this millionaire like sharks, each trying to outmaneuver the other, had me on edge. There were moments I thought Josephine had it locked down, but then Penny would pull some absurd stunt that somehow worked, and I’d start questioning everything again.
But here is where my weak side came in-- since as I laughed, I also had a reason to feel something rough. Being a woman, I could not help but see the larger picture in two women creating power in a world that does not fully appreciate them. They were not just trying to get some money they were trying to get something to validate, to confirm that they were not a joke or an object. And the film was funny, but there was that underbelly. It hit me. at times we can all be hustling, not necessarily money, but honour, room in a world that does its best to squeeze us into proper little boxes.
The turns continued to happen. I had finally hoped that Josephine and Penny would come to some sort of relationship or respect each other when the movie totally snatches the rug out. Betrayals, turns, cross-deals--one could not have known who was at the real helm. And honestly? Such vagaries were a reflection of life. Since is that not the way people are? We feign alliance, we grin, we share but when it comes to high stakes, we all become selfish at times.
The final, oh, the final episode got me. It was this ideal combination of comeback and comedy, without being overly spoilt. All those games, all those cons, they run round and round and bring it back to us that however clever you may think you are, there is always somebody smarter. I strolled off dispositionally content and thoughtful. Similar as yes, I laughed my heart out, but I could not help thinking how many times we wear masks, how many times we act just to live, just to win, just to prove that we are not that little in the eyes of someone else.
What really stayed with me was Penny and Josephine’s dynamic. It made me think about the women in my own life — the polished, put-together ones who seem untouchable and the raw, messy ones who live without filters. Sometimes they clash, sometimes they complement each other, but in the end, both kinds of strength matter. The Hustle captured that beautifully. It reminded me that power doesn’t have just one face, and hustle isn’t always pretty — but it works.
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