Hathaway's first two films of 2019—the thriller "Serenity" and the comedy "The Hustle"—were poorly reviewed by critics. In the former, she appeared alongside Matthew McConaughey as a woman who tasks her ex-husband to kill her new abusive husband, a role for which she dyed her hair blonde. "The Washington Post" criticized her performance as "cartoonish", writing that her femme fatale character was reminiscent of "a kind of live-action Jessica Rabbit". The latter film was a remake of the 1988 film "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", co-starring Rebel Wilson, which emerged as a sleeper hit. Hathaway next played a woman with bipolar disorder in an episode of the Prime Video romantic anthology series "Modern Love". She then played the wife of Mark Ruffalo's character in Todd Haynes's legal drama "Dark Waters", about environmental poisoning done by the chemical company DuPont. Writing for "Variety", Owen Gleiberman labeled her supporting performance "a piercing dance of agony and loyalty".