Review of The Hustle (2019) by Greedybadidea — 13 Jun 2020

Penny is a small-time con artist who traps men into giving her money, whereas Josephine is a sophisticated con artist who cons the world's richest men out of their money, whose idol is the legendary unknown con artist "Medusa." The two con artists meet on their way to the French Riviera for the first time. Not willing to take any chance with any competition, Josephine has Penny arrested, after which Josephine pays her bail and advises Penny to leave the country. Penny discovers that she was conned by Josephine but begs her to teach Penny her ways. Josephine and Penny execute a complicated con act against multiple rich men called the Lord of the Rings, stealing engagement rings. The plan works at the beginning, but after a while, Josephine refuses to pay Penny because she's an apprentice. Penny and Josephine wager Penny's entire net worth of $500,000 using billionaire Thomas Westerburg, the creator of a tech app called YaBurnt, as their victim.

Penny initially gains the upper hand by pretending to be blind, something that Thomas could relate to because his grandmother was also blind. Josephine, however, pretends to be a prominent eye doctor to "treat" Penny using unorthodox methods as a ruse to get close to Thomas. Penny uses sympathy gained by a few women at the club to ambush Josephine in the bathroom while she spends alone time with Thomas, but she learns that Thomas is not a billionaire and that he intends to use the last amount of money he has for her instead. She tells Josephine that the wager is off, obviously having developed some feelings for him. Josephine changes the wager of stealing Thomas' money to stealing his feelings instead. To hold her up, Josephine tells the women Penny lied about being blind, and they glue her hand to the wall.

Josephine later shows up at Thomas' hotel room, attempting to seduce him. Penny breaks free from the wall and learns from a hotel server that Josephine never left his room, which makes her assume that they have had sex. The next morning, Thomas admits to Penny that he paid for her eye care, but he must leave France. Penny gives him $500,000 back via Venmo, and he leaves in a plane. Josephine catches up to her, having admitted that she and Thomas never had sex and that he conned her into investing $500,000 into his company. Penny realizes that she had also been conned by him; Thomas reveals via text that his grandmother was the original Medusa, having inherited her title, though his feelings for Penny were genuine.

A fortnight later, Penny is leaving Josephine's residence. Out of sympathy, Josephine gives her the money from their "Lord of the Rings" con acts. Their farewell is cut short when Thomas returns while in the middle of a con act against wealthy tourists in which he includes the two women. They reluctantly go along with his act but holds $2,000,000 against him before they trust him. Thomas suggests they work together to make even more money, which Josephine and Penny agree to. They are then shown committing a successful con during Christmas holidays, getting along, with Penny and Thomas resuming their relationship.