Movie Review - Focus

Focus ** (out of 5) (PG-13) Will Smith stars as a master thief we’re supposed to root for in this caper dramedy. His skills as a con artist and pickpocket are exceptional; same for his organizational skills, as we learn he’s assembled a large crew to work every angle of a major event, swiping wallets, jewels and identities en masse, including a foxy newcomer (Margot Robbie). Overall, this one’s much more entertaining than his After Earth. But so are most trips to the dentist.

Films that get audiences to side with the crooks require a couple of factors - skill and charisma of the protagonists is the first essential. The second is that we need to feel as if their victims deserve to be had. All the beloved big cons and heists of film lore pitted likable underdogs against rich jerks or nasty crime bosses, usually manipulating their inherent greed and arrogance against them. So watching Smith as his minions prey on members of the general public undermines viewer allegiance. Anyone who’s been hit by petty criminals or identity thieves will have a hard time staying in Smith’s corner. Without that empathy connection, the film fails.

Smith’s first encounter with Robbie sets the table nicely. The highlight for dramatic tension comes early - at the Super Bowl. The rest of the film is a muddled mess of moves, switches and misdirections that don’t work emotionally or logically. Bad script; defective concept. Creators Glenn Ficarra and John Requa should have binge-watched The Sting, either version of Ocean’s Eleven, and TV series like The Rogues, Hustle and Leverage to get their own focus in order before writing this one.

Afterthought: I’ve greatly enjoyed Robert Taylor’s basic-cable TV series Longmire, in which he plays an archetypal laconic cowboy serving as sheriff in a present-day Wyoming town. Until he turns up here with his natural Aussie diction, I had no idea this latter-day clone of Gary Cooper and Randolph Scott was an import. ACTING!!!! (2/27/15)