“They don’t make them like they use” so it is said but “Focus” proves
them wrong. It is a movie about the con artists trade and giving basic
lessons in how to work the trade. The thing with con artists is that you
don’t know if and/or when they are conning each other.
Nicky (Will Smith) has 35 ‘employees’ who heist watches, wallets,
money, credit cards, jewels, clothes, anything that you can take from an
unknowing mark and then sell it to fences dividing what they make after
expenses. Jess (Margot Robbie) who has just been getting along with her
cons wants to advance and so she cons Nicky into teaching her how to do
just that and that is where/how the audience learns the art of focusing
while distracting.
The movie takes place in the world of the rich and famous starting in
a restaurant and hotel in Manhattan, then going to a super Bowl sky-box
in the Superdome and French Quarter in New Orleans and then to Buenos
Aries for the Formula 1 races. The directors, Glenn Ficarra and John
Requa, think nothing of destroying a Ferrari for a 30 second scene. The
directors, also the screenwriters, obviously learned the business of
scams and con artists and even gives credit to Apollo Robbins as the
‘con artist/adviser/pickpocket’ expert.
Smith and Robbie have enough charisma to make their love affair
believable though at times that does drag the movie almost to a halt.
The supporting players make the film and scams really interesting and
fun starting with BD Wong as you never saw him on “Law and Order”, rich
playboy Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro) possibly doing a con of his own,
Adrian Martinez as Nicky’s very funny partner in crime , Robert Taylor
an Australian race car mogul along with Gerald McRaney as a tough
enforcer who is funny without knowing he is not what you see.
“Focus” has many scammers applying cons including each other and it
really doesn’t make a difference if you don’t quite follow all of them.
As in movies like they use to make this is a swift moving luxuriously
filmed just sit back and enjoy the actors, the scenery and the life you
might like to lead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxCRgtdAuBo