Focus
Director(s): Glenn Ficarra,
John Requa
Year: 2015
Focus really wants you to know it’s a movie about cons and
intelligence. It puts it right there in front of you in the opening scenes,
ham-handedly telling you this is the movie. It even swears it’s not that movie
with some tired meta-dialogue where the actors banter about not doing that
familiar thing that we’ve all seen before, but you know I love that thing, oh
you mean this thing? For the record, that bit works but it requires a
relationship that hadn’t yet been earned on screen. Regardless, the film absolutely
lays all its cards on the table and does exactly what it says it’s going to do
– and pulling that high wire trick off masterfully, entertainingly and leaving
the mark taken but still respectful of the craft is the sign of a truly gifted
con artist…or storyteller for that matter. But for reasons I can’t quite put my
finger on, focus is just a tad bit shallow.
It isn’t until they visit the faux Super Bowl (one of the
more annoyingly distracting aspects of any film is when they try to replicate
the NFL but do it with fake team names and logos) that the film truly finds its
pulse. BD Wong steals the scene and makes us cry out for more, but sadly this
will be his only appearance.
The good news is the film is firmly in place with a
relationship deepened by the fear of looking over a very frightening cliff. The
next drop forces a reset again that…and maybe this is the crux of my issue with
the film on a larger level…makes us all start over again. I feel like the
film’s pacing is so uneven, erring on the slooooow side, that I’m not given the
chance to fully engage. I feel like I’m ahead of the story for long stretches –
too long. Even when the film tries to pay those moments off with “gotcha”
moments, they feel mechanical.
If all this sounds hypercritical it’s because I have a
bigger problem with good films that could be great than bad films that are
simply bad. Focus has a number of wonderful moments. They don’t add up to a
satisfying walkaway, however, and that’s too bad because the pieces are there.
Gerald McRaney, fresh off his masterful turn in Netflix’s House of Cards, plays
a smart tough guy who has some great back and forth with Smith. Adrian Martinez
plays Smith’s sidekick with great enthusiasm, heart and humor.
See it for fun, because it is. Just don’t look too close.
Resonance Rating 3.0 out of 5.0
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