Hustlers

A fairly enjoyable film that was boosted by a fantastic - and fantastic-looking too! - Jennifer Lopez in possibly her best role in years! Unfortunately, the rest of the film failed to live up to the heights of J Lo. Constance Wu, in the lead role, was unengaging and uncharismatic, and placing her next to J Lo really highlighted the difference in ability and screen chemistry.

Similarly, although the film, written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, went beyond the typical debauchery and skankiness usually associated with stripper-flicks, whenever Scafaria dipped into more serious territory of capitalism, sisterhood, motherhood, survival and friendship the pacing faltered and the air just went out of the film. Until J Lo reignites the screen.

There could have been a better film within this if they had focused on the central relationship between Wu's and Lopez's character instead of the hustling. The flashback narrative structure served to only highlight the boringness and predictability of the central story, whereas the one thing that the audience are keen to find out more, namely the above-said relationship, got teased out to a rather unsatisfactory conclusion.

Scafaria seemed more interested in telling the story of the hustle rather than furthering the depths of these potentially complicated characters, but yet the hustle itself seemed as rote as that of a bloated Lifetime movie.

There was humour in the film too, and it was scattered around. I guess that could have been more due to the contribution by Will Farrell and Adam McKay rather than Scafaria, because oddly enough, on hindsight, one cannot really remember the specifics of the comedy.

Wu's character, the audience surrogate, was written very well - on paper - but its translation onto the big screen by Wu was a bore. Her costuming and look itself did her no favour, and obviously the costumer focused more on J Lo than recreating an authentic Asian look. I honestly doubt and Asian stripper would looked and dressed like Wu in 2007. She looked like she was stuck in the 70s or 80s instead. Added to that, the fact that Wu was just very uninteresting and did not play her character as someone worth rooting for.

Actually, there were no one character that was worth rooting for. Maybe except Doug. Poor Doug.

Scafaria had created for Wu a central lead character that had a great back story with so much potential emotional depth, but in the end, they only gave us someone who was essentially going through the motions without a sense of authenticity or lived-in-ness.

Having said that, Wu did deliver towards the end, but it was too little too late. What a shame.

Thankfully, we had J Lo. Man, we all should look like her at age 50.  And boy, the chatter is real, J Lo has a chance - albeit likely a long shot depending on how else the year goes - of some award recognition. A Golden Globe nomination for sure, but Oscar...we will see. She was electrifying, magnetic, charismatic and dosed out in just the right amount without being overbearing. She easily commanded the screen and out-classed and out-acted everybody. Then again, the latter was not hard, considering the rest of her cast mates were more well-known for their television screen roles and music career than acting per se. J Lo was the ferocious beating heart of this film and her screen entrance will be one for the books.

Another highlight of the film was the music. The songs featured were a homage to naughties and early teenies, and helped to move the narrative along despite the absence of a score.

J Lo should get back into serious film-making as we eagerly anticipate her 2019/20 awards campaign. Just as we anticipate Hollywood try to get a female-driven, female-led ensemble heist/hustler film done right. Steve McQueen's Widows was still the closest for now.