What’s not to love about a Robin Hood story? Steal from the rich, give to the poor, great! Gotta love equalizers. Hustlers is the modern version of Robin Hood, if in this case Robin Hood was Jennifer Lopez, Wall Street was the sherriff of Nottingham, and I guess Constance Wu is Little John. Wait, I mean Lil’ Jon.
It’s 2007, right before the great recession. Destiny (Wu) is the new stripper on the block at a strip club next to Wall Street. Unsure how to make money for herself, Destiny partners with Ramona (Lopez), a seasoned stripper vet, and a secretly brilliant entrepreneur herself. The pair kill it pre-recession, helping Destiny move into her own place, have a daughter, and take care of her grandma. Money eventually runs out for her though. Desperate, Destiny reunites with Ramona, who organizes a side hustle involving drugs, naive businessmen, and club promotion that launches both their lifestyles into the stratosphere. That is, until you know something is going to go wrong.
Hot beautiful women. Con Artists. Drinking. Drugs. Emasculated aholes. Cardi B. The details of Hustlers are so crazy and fun, that the screenplay smartly keeps its focus there for most of the running time, rightly so. But underneath all of that debauchery is your Fast and Furious playbook: the two parts of the American Dream. Destiny has a grandma yes, but that relationship isn’t really parental as Destiny is caring for her now. She’s totally alone. Her attachment to Ramona is more than about money; Ramona represents that mother figure she desperately craves and wants. Ramona’s desires are more complex. Yes, she enjoys being the matriarch of this makeshift family, but she might really be after just being at the top of some sort of pyramid. As time goes on, Ramona goes to greater and greater lengths to keep her power and hustle going on because it gives her purpose. When Destiny sees this other side of Ramona’s personality, it destroys the “mommy” image she built up in her head, thus hurting Destiny right in the heart. You come to Hustlers for the T&A, but you stay because you’re drawn in by these two characters and how their relationship helps make both of them better people.
As you can see, the movie hinges on casting Destiny and especially Ramona correctly. Hustlers goes 2 for 2. Constance Wu is totally winning as the “stripper with a heart of gold.” Wu has already played an outsider to a world of privileged rich people; in this one she’s just wearing fewer clothes. But as good as Wu is, she’s swept up in the Jennifer Lopez Tornado. I guess JLo was rope-a-doping us with her movie slate since Out of Sight, because she shows serious chops in Hustlers. In all of 5 minutes, JLo shows why Destiny would be instantly drawn to Ramona. But that booty shaking, Puerto Rican goddess Jenny from the Block we’ve seen in many a film and music video. As the film goes on, Lopez add to that superstar magnetism a depth of emotion and command that makes Ramona easily the most fascinating character in the movie. Each scene, as described by Destiny to a reporter (Julia Stiles), JLo adopts whatever personality Destiny is ascribing to Ramona, so we’re not quite sure what her true motives are. Then JLo ties it all together when her posse get’s got, delivering a rich monologue that’s riveting to watch. Maybe it’s wisdom, maybe it’s Alex Rodriguez. But whatever is motivating you to take on challenging characters Jennifer Lopez, keep doing it! You’re really good at it!
At the end of the day, Hustlers is just a blender of everything that’s fun about watching movies. Strip clubs mean fun music, beautiful people, and sexy dance numbers, with maybe some excess fueled spending sprees. The message is a combination of ubiquitous themes of “family is the people you choose,” “power corrupts,” and “punching upwards.” But like most people, Hustlers will have you at “JLo smoking on a rooftop in a fur coat.”