Review: Jennifer Lopez steals the show in ‘Hustlers’

“Hustlers " saves all of its tricks for the end. Until then, “Hustlers” kind of spins its wheels in telling the true story of a group of New York City strippers who, put out by the recession’s effects on their Wall Street patrons, start a side con that involves drugging their wealthy marks and running up exorbitant credit card bills that they get a cut of. As pure entertainment, it gets by well enough thanks in large part to Scafaria’s humane and lively filmmaking, a killer soundtrack and Jennifer Lopez, whose character Ramona might technically be the second lead, but is the honey-voiced, stiletto-sharp soul of the movie. There’s only so much a movie can do with so many complex issues swirling around — the often gross entitlement and bravado of the men dropping thousands of dollars at a strip club regularly, the effect their words and actions have on the women they paid, the inner lives that led all these people to the club every night and the intoxicating allure of the money being thrown around so cavalierly. One of the “happiest” scenes is a Christmas party at Ramona’s plush high rise apartment where the gifts being exchanged include a long strand of Mikimoto pearls, another Gucci bag, a fur coat and some Christian Louboutin boots.