An impressive cast highlights this dark and intense drama.

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2012)

Going into The Hustler I was expecting nothing more than a vehicle for a great Paul Newman performance. Coming out of it, I got that performance but I also got a wrenching exploration into addiction and what it takes to be a man. The script by Sidney Carroll and Robert Rossen is structured expertly, opening and closing with big games of pool, but traversing through a sea of despair and character development in between them. The opening game gets everything off to such a rapid start, with this fast and wickedly entertaining face-off between Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) and Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) that lasts over a day long. It plays out for practically the entire first half hour of the film, and that half hour flies by as a pace as swift as the two men moving around the pool table.
That game hooked me in quickly, but The Hustler isn't concerned with being a sports movie by any means; it's about taking this character, brash and headstrong, and stripping away everything he's got in order to find out what he's truly made of. It's after the match is over though that the film really sinks it's teeth in and takes off dramatically. Eddie begins a relationship with the lonely Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie) that will change his life drastically and ultimately change who he is. George C. Scott marvelously plays Bert Gordon, the all-knowing man who backs Fats in the beginning, and he tells Felson that in order to win he needs to develop character. Well, that's exactly what he does.
I've always loved films where the central character changes immensely from the beginning to the end, while the world around them stays the same, and The Hustler is a shining example of that structure. When we first meet Felson he is cocksure, stubborn and overly confident. By the end he is a completely changed man and Paul Newman portrays him with a brilliance that few actors have ever been able to accomplish. To go through these remarkable changes takes something great and Newman breathes every scene so strongly, trading on his natural charm and charisma to bring down the house when the film makes it's way into it's surprisingly dark and poignant themes.
He's not the only member of the cast who shines, all four of the core actors pull off great work here. Piper Laure is devastating as Sarah, a character who we initially think Eddie needs but as more is revealed we discover that it's her that needs him. She's a ball of alcoholic rage and haunting loneliness and when the film ended she was the only who left the most resounding impression on me, despite it being Newman's show all the way. George C. Scott has an incredibly commanding presence, and Jackie Gleason makes enough of an impression in those opening thirty minutes to keep you thinking about him the entire film until he comes back in the final, wickedly intense showdown.
The Hustler ended up being something much different than I was expecting, and something much more real and powerful. Paul Newman's revelatory performance took a deeply flawed and human character and tossed him through the ringer, leaving a mighty impression as the lights faded out.