Warner Brothers

R. 105 min

I really love movies about conmen, crooks, gypsies, tramps, thieves; you get it.

From the slick misdirection in THE STING to the dark and gritty switcheroo that flows from the pen of David Mamet I really enjoy that final scene where the audience stares slack-jawed at the screen amazed by the twist ending.

Great con flicks are hard to make hence the relative small number of them historically speaking. In a great cop movie the bad guy can get caught or slip away or in a monster movie the goon can get obliterated or eat the entire town but a good con drama has to keep you guessing all the way to the very end. Just like the real con, one slip up and it all goes to hell.

Let me make another vague comparison. Included in the setup of nearly every Sherlock Holmes classic the super detective will look at a handful of clues and make a deduction that amazes an awestruck Dr. Watson.

Same with a respectable con film when the grifter engages in some sort of trick which is later explained to the audience. If the deductions or the gimmick are too unbelievable the entire premise will suffer.

Let me give you an example in this spoiler. Part way into the film Nicky, (Will Smith) attends the Super Bowl with his date and engages in a series of seemingly random and minor bets with an Asian millionaire a couple rows back. After losing everyone Nicky doubles the bet to the delight of his opponent up until the point the bet reaches over $1,000,000. Nicky, unable to control himself, eventually bets it all on an obviously impossible challenge in which he asks the mark to pick the number of any player on the field and his girlfriend will guess it.

Of course she does and they walk off with twice as much money as they arrived with. On the way to the car Nicky tells her how it was set up and that explanation is simply preposterous. At that point I realized I couldn't take anything in FOCUS seriously. I understand that in this type of movie you can never take anything for granted but when impossible things happen it robs the audience of the ability to be surprised.

So from then on I knew the main gag concerning an Argentinian race car big shot and a power boosting mechanical device wasn't likely to be rooted in any kind of natural law, and it wasn't. Not only that but there wasn't a doubt in my mind how the ending would come out.

I won't tell you exactly what it was but when it happens you will shake your head and say yeah I remember that. You might like this if you are a huge Will Smith fan or if you show up at the theater drunk, but unfortunately I missed out on both those prerequisites.

And St Patrick's Day is right around the corner!

C

WSS