Throwing his hat into the ring of the con artist sub genre, Will Smith stars as Nicky Spurgeon in Focus. These types of film are never easy to do well because like a magic trick, the audience has to always be in the dark. Or to put it another way, the film (or magician) has to be one step ahead of the audience. If you know it's a magic trick or some type of confidence game going on, you might try to figure everything out instead of just going with it. In the case of Focus, the reveal is a pretty good one.
With that being said, if you are a fan of Will Smith then that's great. Some people think it's hard to think of him as a character and not as himself. So be it, then in this case you have Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) to scrutinize as well. She comes along early in the film as a would be, up and coming grifter that insists on learning the finer points from Nicky. She's a quick learner and soon becomes part of his crew and more. This is where things get fuzzy because you're unsure if everyone is on the up and up.
The filmmakers that brought you Crazy, Stupid, Love have assembled a fine cast (Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney, BD Wong) that take on interesting and integral parts of this jigsaw. It would be a shame not to mention Adrian Martinez as Nicky's main man Farhad. If Focus is considered a Ro-Com, then Martinez is definitely the comic relief. Robbie's performance should not go unnoticed by any stretch either. Although she's still a newcomer and not hard to look at, she more than holds her own with a blockbuster star of Smiths caliber. One can only hope that she doesn't get pigeonholed as the bombshell girlfriend/wife, etc.
Focus is an interesting mix of romance, crime, suspense, comedy, formula one racing, football, New Orleans and Buena Aires. That all sounds like a good time. And it is.
With that being said, if you are a fan of Will Smith then that's great. Some people think it's hard to think of him as a character and not as himself. So be it, then in this case you have Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) to scrutinize as well. She comes along early in the film as a would be, up and coming grifter that insists on learning the finer points from Nicky. She's a quick learner and soon becomes part of his crew and more. This is where things get fuzzy because you're unsure if everyone is on the up and up.
The filmmakers that brought you Crazy, Stupid, Love have assembled a fine cast (Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney, BD Wong) that take on interesting and integral parts of this jigsaw. It would be a shame not to mention Adrian Martinez as Nicky's main man Farhad. If Focus is considered a Ro-Com, then Martinez is definitely the comic relief. Robbie's performance should not go unnoticed by any stretch either. Although she's still a newcomer and not hard to look at, she more than holds her own with a blockbuster star of Smiths caliber. One can only hope that she doesn't get pigeonholed as the bombshell girlfriend/wife, etc.
Focus is an interesting mix of romance, crime, suspense, comedy, formula one racing, football, New Orleans and Buena Aires. That all sounds like a good time. And it is.