Directed by Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney
Sometimes movie stars just have to be movie stars, and that’s exactly what Will Smith and Aussie soap graduate Margot Robbie get to do in this slick piece of entertainment from the directors of I Love You Phillip Morris and Cray, Stupid, Love.
After neophyte grifter Jess (Margot Robbie) fails to get the better of veteran conman Nicky (Will Smith) in a by-the-numbers short con, he sees potential in her and inducts her into his cadre of professional criminals. Romance blooms but it isn’t long before Jess is left on the side of the road with an $80K pay off thanks to Nicky’s insistence that their relationship was purely professional.
Cut to three years later and Nicky is going to work for a ruthless racing team owner, Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro) in a complicated and narratively inert scam to improve his odds in the next F1 season. Of course, Jess is in the picture too – she’s Garriga’s girlfriend and doesn’t want him to know about her shady past. But is she really out of the game? And is Nicky really over her?
Yeah, there’s nothing too original going on here, but everyone likes a caper and, like we said, the stars get to be stars. Focus is a movie that succeeds almost entirely because of the megawatt-level charisma of its two leads. Smith tempers his Big Willy charm with thoughtfulness and maturity to excellent purpose here; his role here was clearly earmarked for a George Clooney/Cary Grant type at some point, but Smith manages to marry the suave on-the-page character with his own onscreen persona. Robbie more than keeps up her end of the game, trading snappy patter and double entendres with Smith like a pro. And the pair both look the business: at base, this is a film about beautiful people wearing beautiful things in beautiful, exotic locations (Buenos Aires in this instance) and sounding like they could hold their own at the Algonquin Round Table while they do so.
It’s all to little consequence, of course – Focus is a confection of a film, not a substantial meal, and no one learns anything resembling a message on their journey to the credits. Directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have a light touch and keep things moving along at a decent pace, never lingering long enough in any one place for the audience to get antsy. The problem is that the film is concenred with misdirection and surprising the audience that we never learn enough about these characters to really care about them – they remain Will Smith and Margot Robbie, never really becoming Nicky and Jess. As a result, the stakes are never really that high, no matter what obstacles or threats are introduced.
Still, it’s a fun, glamorous ride, and if you adjust your expectations accordingly, you’ll have a good time. Just don’t expect to remember too much about it three months down the track.
TRAVIS JOHNSON
