Netflix’s Hustle gives Adam Sandler the Jerry Maguire role he’s always needed
Adam Sandler is the rare star who isn’t afraid to look vulnerable. It’s an innate talent that’s served him well in emotionally complex roles in Funny People, Punch-Drunk Love, The Wedding Singer, Uncut Gems, and so forth. Between his sharp jokes resides a stunning, often unlikely intimacy that makes Sandler into Hollywood’s biggest puppy dog. It’s why his pairing with an emotionally perceptive director like Jeremiah Zagar makes so much sense. Hustle, Zagar’s inspirational basketball flick for Netflix, is essentially Rocky meets Jerry Maguire.
And Sandler as weary NBA scout Stanley is the film’s rousing compass. Stanley has spent the last eight years traveling from game to game and hotel room to hotel room around the world, searching for a difference-making player who can lead to a championship for his team, the Philadelphia 76ers. But Stanley is tired of the road. He wants to be a coach so he can find some stability and spend time with his wife, Teresa (Queen Latifah), and their daughter (Jordan Hull). When he discovers Bo Cruz (Juancho Hernangomez), a tall Spanish construction worker with game, he thinks he’s found his once-in-a-lifetime lottery ticket.
Hustle is decidedly glitzier and bigger than Zagar’s previous film, the critical indie darlingWe the Animals. It deploys an all-star ensemble, ingenious camerawork, and sharp editing to uplift a cliché story about earnest fatherhood and distant hoop dreams. But in the early going of Hustle, the bones of other, better movies are visible.
The meek Stanley tries to be a team player by ceding ground to the hostile Vince Merrick (Ben Foster), son of 76ers team owner Rex (Robert Duvall). A tenacious scouting meeting between Stanley and Vince, in which they argue over the
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