Hustlers
16/09/19 Filed in: Cinema
The trailer for this film appealed to me, and reviews have been good, with even talk of possible Oscar nominations. But I found that it dragged a bit, which seems to put me out of step with the general view. There are at least two stories here; the hustling of rich men by a group of enterprising strippers and the friendship that builds between Ramona, the star turn, and Destiny, a newcomer who is in need of somebody to guide her through the seedy business. Jennifer Lopez is hot with a capital H as Ramona while Constance Wu is well cast as the ingenue.
Everything is going swimmingly with the Wall Street boys having money to burn, although lesson one is to choose those at the top, who pay by the minute to watch Ramona and Destiny pleasure each other, although these sequences are in fact remarkably tame by present day standards. But the gravy train hits the buffers with the 2008 financial crash, resulting in business at the clubs taking a crash dive. Ramona comes up with a plan that basically involves drugging those punters that are still in the market to ensure that they spend, spend, spend, with the club and the girls both taking a cut.
The so called sisters, Ramona, Destiny and two others, Annabelle and Justice, are soon into big money, relying on the men not to report their losses to avoid personal embarrassment. But the sting catches on and Ramona finds that the 'Russians' have muscled in on the act. So she decides that they will cut out the clubs and go it alone. Destiny isn't too sure, but the decision has been made. We see a succession of hustles, which was the part of the film that I found dragged a bit. It had to go wrong of course, the catalyst being the arrival of Dawn, a young woman who diverts Ramone's attention from Destiny and proves to be a liability.
The story flips between the actual events and a much later interview between Destiny and a journalist, wherein she relates the story. The portrayal of the relationship between Ramona and Destiny is certainly what could elevate the film to award status, but the strip show scenes and the subsequent hustles were for me just inconsequential background to this central relationship.
Having said this, when Ramona and the sisters enter a room everybody looks up. And they actually purport to be sisters despite their obvious lack of genetic similarities (Latino, Asian, white blonde and Black), which goes a long way to explain how gullible were the men that they hustled. As the police officer says, "So the guy went back three more times. He must have liked it!". The hustles were obviously as enjoyable as they were bank account emptying!
The story flips between the actual events and a much later interview between Destiny and a journalist, wherein she relates the story. The portrayal of the relationship between Ramona and Destiny is certainly what could elevate the film to award status, but the strip show scenes and the subsequent hustles were for me just inconsequential background to this central relationship.
Having said this, when Ramona and the sisters enter a room everybody looks up. And they actually purport to be sisters despite their obvious lack of genetic similarities (Latino, Asian, white blonde and Black), which goes a long way to explain how gullible were the men that they hustled. As the police officer says, "So the guy went back three more times. He must have liked it!". The hustles were obviously as enjoyable as they were bank account emptying!