Movie Review: 'Focus'
By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - It's a flimflam flick about pros arranging cons.
And because "big con" flicks like Focus are about stealing our focus so that the film can can then fool us in some way – and because we so love that process and being fooled -- the fun factor is usually high regardless of the film's limitations.
That's the case with Focus, a tricky, affable romantic thriller that remains watchable and entertaining despite elements that you may find yourself complaining about during post-mortem discussions.
Will Smith, at his most casually charismatic, stars as smooth-operating Nicky, a wildly successful con artist with an extensive crew headed for the Superdome in New Orleans for the fictional Super Bowl, where pocket after pocket is just waiting to be picked. Later, they'll turn up at a Gran Prix race in Argentina, with another carefully choreographed and calibrated, crowded con.
Only in the movies.
Margot Robbie plays Jess, a would-be scammer who wants gifted grifter Nicky to teach her what he knows. And while he's teaching her the art of misdirection, he falls for her.
Or does he?
And while we're trying to figure out just who's conning whom, the movie picks our pocket.
Together, they pull off several lucrative schemes, but then he abruptly breaks it off and, three years later, she ends up involved with one of his targets, a billionaire racing car owner played by Rodrigo Santoro, in Buenos Aires.
Robbie, an Australian, more than lives up to the promise of her striking debut in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, holding her own in the female lead opposite Smith, who shows us the swagger as well as the vulnerability. It's their chemistry that has to carry the movie and they're up to the task.
Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (who wrote Bad Santa and wrote and directed I Love You Phillip Morris and Crazy, Stupid, Love), working from their own fizzy, twist-filled screenplay, deliver the requisite sleight-of-hand, but their narrative has its ups and downs.
"Up" would be represented by a gambling sequence involving B.D. Wong as the highest of rollers that would work as a nifty short feature even out of context.
But "down" is the only way to describe another crucial sequence involving tough guy Gerald McRaney that is an absolute cheat: the reason why will not be divulged here, but you'll know why the moment the movie ends.
If the film itself isn't quite the master of misdirection that Nicky is, if it recalls but falls far short of a classic like The Sting or a bit short of jazzy entertainments like the Ocean's trilogy, it still keeps you sufficiently engaged, although more cerebrally than emotionally.
But that's enough, so we'll swindle 2-1/2 stars out of 4 for Focus, a lively and diverting caper flick that's quick and slick and not a bad trick.