This weekend sees the release of Will Smith’s latest attempt to get back into the spotlight and recover from the cinematic freefall that he’s been experiencing as an actor. Written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love), the comedic crime drama Focus follows notorious con man Nicky (Wmith) who begins to fall for an aspiring con woman who desperately wants to learn from him. As he teaches her the tricks of his trade, she gets too close and cuts the relationship off, disappearing in the process. Three years later, while working on a dangerous solo job in Buenos Aires, Jess (Margot Robbie) shows up out of nowhere, throwing Nicky off his game and ultimately making the execution of his scheme much more difficult.
As much as we, the American public, hate criminals and being conned and lied to, we absolutely love watching these people work and seeing what they can get away with. Our fascination with crime is why we love movies that focus on them, especially when they’re rather fun and not that serious. If you’re a fan of films like Ocean’s Eleven then you’re going to really enjoy Focus. Each film is very formulaic in its approach to conning and stealing, but even if you think you’ve figured everything out, they throw a curveball, some form of misdirection that changes the game a bit, leaving you more satisfied than if you had been able to predict the exact way the movie was going to end.
Personally, I thought I had Focus figured out. If you pay attention to the first 30 minutes of the film, and I mean really pay attention, you can figure out a lot of things. The movie breaks down everything that could possibly happen when the real story gets underway and its emphasis on misdirection is the key to it all. I’m not going to spoil anything but it’s this fact that makes the movie a bit more enjoyable in my opinion. Guessing where movies about cons go is one of my favorite games to play at the movies and, if you’re like me, you’ll derive a good amount of pleasure from this mainstream crowd-pleaser if you play along. Having Margot Robbie gracing the screen also doesn’t hurt the situation either.
Focus is a lot fun. The movie won’t win any Oscars, but the writing is good enough and the story is fun to watch. I found the most interesting parts to be the philosophy behind Nicky’s ventures. How he would go about orchestrating and executing a job. Early in the film his focus is on volume, not big scores, but that evolves throughout the film and it becomes interesting to see how it changes his style, especially when he needs to adapt after Jess shows up.
I can’t go so far as to say Will Smith is back, but I can say that this film is likely going to be the start of a new chapter in his career. I think we’ll see him taking the George Clooney approach going forward, minus the directing, signing-on for either crowd-pleasing films or unique, somewhat serious dramas with (hopefully) Oscar potential. If you’re looking for something that doesn’t require strenuous thinking, that has a few laughs and enjoyable twists, then this weekend’s theatrical winner for you is likely going to be Focus.
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