“Focus”
Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
Warner Bros.
3.0 / 5.0 paws
To say that Will Smith’s career has been hit or miss lately is a gross understatement. It’s been so hit or miss that the two-time Academy Award nominee has morosely described how 2013’s critical punching bag “After Earth” has made him change his career outlook, despite it being a surprising box-office success worldwide.
Smith has always had the charisma that only a beloved former TV star could have, and for the first time in who knows how long, he’s found a film in which he can show it off – albeit a fairly ridiculous one. Fun, sexy and vapid – most often all three at the same time – “Focus” succeeds as a career-spurring vehicle for both Smith and Margot Robbie of “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But this barely works on the surface level, one layered with theater popcorn and a fancy-looking cocktail on the side.
Of all the misinterpretations of the elements that make a classic con-man movie, the one that “Focus” does most skillfully is setting the tone. With a punchy introduction, Smith’s and Robbie’s characters are quickly and effectively introduced as two criminals of very different skill levels. Smith’s Nicky Spurgeon is one of the most talented grifters in the world, able to lift all of a man’s possessions off his body with a few simple maneuvers. Robbie’s Jess Barrett wants to learn the tricks of the trade, and forcefully becomes his protege and accomplice.
Nicky’s scheme is a big one, with a troupe of sharks who pilfer and plunder the credit cards, watches, purses, etc., of large crowds all at the same time. A regular veteran of the art, he can even swindle millions of dollars through psychological games with the most wealthy bystanders he can find. Things get complicated, however, when his relationship with Jess verges on romantic, and he decides to break off ties with her to keep his concentration on life’s real prize: money – as if he didn’t have warehouses full of it already.
Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who received notable attention for directing “Crazy, Stupid, Love,” are no strangers to engaging plot twists, but “Focus” takes the idea and runs it into the ground, unsteadily gets up and runs it into the ground again. In fact, the moment that Nicky decides to remove Jess from his life is a reasonably important spoiler that occurs around halfway through, but barely ranks within the film’s top 10 most interesting surprises.
It’s so chock full of them that at one point or another, it’s almost impossible not to see the next one coming from a mile away. After Jess is kicked out of Nicky’s life, the rest of the film transports to Buenos Aires, and kicks off a whole different plot with a new batch of supporting characters. The reason this all sounds so silly is because it really is, and that’s how “Focus” keeps the audience’s attention – that, and a dutiful amount of scenes with Smith and Robbie in bed together.
There are a handful of scenes that are wholesomely tense, filmed with an artistic sleight of hand that feels like something out of a European crime drama. But the rest of “Focus” can be boiled down to high-profile types playing off an intense moment with comedic zingers and arguments. It’s the kind of thing that Smith has always been reliably good at, except that instead of him being the life of an incompetent, subdued party, à la “Men in Black” or “Hitch,” he’s surrounded by people who are just as snarky and over the top as he is.
That ensemble, which includes effective performances from Adrian Martinez, Rodrigo Santoro and others, is inevitably what steers “Focus” from annoying to entertaining, while still leaving enough room for the annoying part to shine through. Although he tries much too hard to be a new “Ocean’s Eleven” or “The Italian Job,” Smith and company somehow wound up with a remedially clever and engaging flick that is fundamentally, believe it or not, unfocused. At the very least, it’s better than that pun.
– Sebastian Torrelio