Chemistry of the Con

Focus

Over the past few decades, movie goers have become fascinated with the art of the con. A con, if you don’t know, is the way thieves trick you into giving them your stuff. This subgenre of films has always portrayed this world as very flashy and almost one step below a celebrity-like lifestyle. Films like Ocean’s Eleven, American Hustle, and even The Grifters have romanticized the world of a thief. Of course, I have been watching movies for a very long time and con movies are one of my favorites. What I have learned by watching these movies is that you never fall in love while you are in the con game; that seems to get you in a lot of trouble. This year Will Smith (After Earth) attempts to break that cardinal rule in Warner Bros. new film Focus.

While dining out, con man Nicky (Smith) becomes the mark for a small time thief named Jess (Margot Robbie The Wolf of Wall Street). Unfortunately for Jess, she cannot con and con man. Jess realizes that Nicky is a fountain of “con” information and so decides to convince him to teach her the tricks of the trade. Nicky demonstrates some moves for her and bids her farewell. Nicky has a job lined up in New Orleans, but after being there for a day Jess tracks him down and tries to persuade him some more. Knowing that she would follow him, Nicky and his team of con artists set her up with the tools to learn. Nicky and his team are in New Orleans for a Super Bowl-like football game and according to Nicky large sporting events like this are prime for suckers. Nicky and Jess pull off quite a few small time cons and rack up about $1.5 million dollars. As successful as they are in New Orleans, Nicky decides to abruptly cut ties with Jess. Fast forward three years later and Nicky is working a job in Buenos Aires, however what he doesn’t plan for is Jess. With this new information, Nicky must deal with his feelings for Jess and not lose his focus.

This film was released at the perfect time. This film is not bad, but it isn’t great either. The best way I can really describe this is this: From January till about Mid-April, not a lot of good movies are released in theatres, so film studios always try and slip one in that looks good but turns out to be mediocre. These films I like to refer to as filler movies. Movies that you watch to escape, but are not going to see again around Award season. This movie is a filler movie. The acting wasn’t terrible and the tone and feel of the movie were actually pretty good.

Will Smith has been dormant for a couple of years and has decided to reemerge in this film. Smith plays Nicky very cool and does a good job doing it. Smith never takes his character over the top and is undoubtedly a great sly talker. Robbie also plays her character well. Robbie brings a great innocence to her character. Both Robbie and Smith have substantial chemistry on film and they both win over the audience by how well the look together. The only problem that I had with these two characters is that we don’t really learn anything about them. We learn very little about Nicky and his past, but we have no idea who Jess is and why she does what she does.

The directorial duties are shared for Focus. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (both directed Crazy, Stupid, Love. as well.) give the audience a beautiful film to look at. Focus is a very appeasing film to watch due to the tone and colors being very soft. The film is never too bright or too dark. Both Requa and Ficarra wrote the film as well. As con movies go, the writers do a decent job keeping the real con hidden till the end of the film, but it isn’t a big shocker like in most con movies.  

I have two problems with this movie. The first is the amount of people that Nicky has working for him during the time he is in New Orleans. The way all of those scenes played out was like watching a circus act. Everyone was conning everyone and I just kept wondering, with these many people swiping credit cards and watches; how would you be able to tell the thieves from the ‘normal’ people. This to me was very unbelievable and almost cartoonish at times. Second, and I know this is going to sound hypocritical in a sense, but where were all of these thieves while Nicky is in Buenos Aires? As soon as the movie shifts three years later, Nicky all of a sudden becomes the ‘lone wolf’ type of con artist and his circus troop is nowhere to be found. If you are going to have a ‘team’ have a ‘team’, don’t switch it up in the middle of your movie.

If you can get over my problems with the movie, then you give this film a try. As I said before, this isn’t a bad movie nor is it a great one. This type of movie you should sit back on your couch with a loved one/significant other and just relax for two hours. Just enjoy this low key film and relax.

The Verdict: Wait For Blu-Ray