‘Focus’
B-
The beginning of “Focus” is not good.
And when I say not good, I mean stunningly dull and cliché.
The first 20 minutes seem to go on for hours as Will Smith’s character, Nicky, teaches an inexperienced Jess, played by Margot Robbie, how to con and steal from others.
The word “focus” is repeated again and again while the two stand in the bitter cold.
There’s no real payoff from these opening scenes, as they’re not crucial to the movie and carry no real plot points.
With that said, the rest of the film is a thrill ride.
We’ve seen before how fascinating and gripping a conman movie can be. From “American Hustle” to “Catch Me If You Can” to the “Ocean’s” series, this genre has a lot of potential and can be a great watch.
Once “Focus” focuses on the goal, the rest of the movie follows suit with the great conman genre.
One of the pivotal scenes occurs at the Super Bowl in New Orleans where Nicky and Jess attempt to con a billionaire.
I don’t want to spoil the scene, but it has a huge payoff and is extremely well-written.
This scam really turned the movie around and set it on a positive track, where it stayed until the credits began to roll.
Like the “Ocean’s” series, the movie seemed to pride itself on inserting as many twists and turns into its plot as it could while still maintaining a semblance of realism.
The movie basically came down to two long cons.
One is at the Super Bowl, as mentioned before.
The second is a Formula 1 racing con, which was the backbone of the second half of the movie.
It was difficult to decipher at times, but the movie does a good job of explaining what exactly just happened and who just played whom.
What made the Formula 1 scenes so great was the casting of character actor Gerald McRaney from “House of Cards” and the “The A-Team.”
McRaney stole the show from both Smith and Robbie with many well-delivered lines.
He leaves the audience unsure if they should be rooting for him or against him. If you take out the first quarter of the movie, “Focus” is a fun ride.
It packs all of the punches a conman movie should, and the connection between Smith and Robbie’s characters created enough emotional distress to resonate with the audience.
Even with the clichés early in the film, “Focus” does enough to recover and become a good conman film.
Following “After Earth,” it seemed Smith was done in box office films. I’m not willing to say he’s all the way back, but with “Focus” and the announcement of “Bad Boys III,” there’s at least a pulse.
