{"id":3474,"date":"2015-03-06T17:08:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-06T17:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=3474"},"modified":"2015-03-06T17:10:22","modified_gmt":"2015-03-06T17:10:22","slug":"focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/action\/focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus ***"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The trick to writer-directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa\u2019s new \u2018rom-con\u2019 flick Focus<\/em> is to keep things going at rapid speed and make everything look super glossy, so as to fool the rest of us into thinking this qualifies as another Ocean\u2019s Eleven<\/em>. Sure, this 100 million dollar film looks the pretty picture and puts pickpocketing in a glamorous, 5-star lifestyle \u2013 no Fagins here, but Focus<\/em> has us wandering off sometimes on the peripherals, and less than convinced at others, even if it is stylish to look at.<\/div>\n
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Will Smith plays successful, wealthy con artist Nicky who spots wannabe trickster Jess (The Wolf on Wall Street<\/em>\u2019s Margot Robbie) a mile off when he\u2019s tagged as the mark. After being rumbled, she pleads with him to teach her the high-roller ways that bring the big bucks. Nicky employs her as his sultry new intern in his multi-million dollar racket. Feelings develop between the pair. Fast forward three years, and Nicky\u2019s latest con is helping crooked Formula 1 boss Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro) get ahead of his rivals on the circuit. Only Jess makes an unlikely appearance and unsettles things.<\/div>\n
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With all the turkeys Smith has cooked in recent years, Focus<\/em> is a more solid comeback for the actor into \u2018grown-up\u2019 cinema. It also makes him look very good \u2013 physically, and gives him the opportunity to get entangled with one of Hollywood\u2019s hottest screen babes, Robbie [you can see how rumours of a real-life liaison between the actors have arisen].<\/div>\n
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Smith and Robbie on a purely physical level are good together. The problem is there is a lot of physicality in the first half that it\u2019s like watching two lustful, slurpy teenagers in public at it all the time. It certainly gives Fifty Shades<\/em> a run for its money. Things just become a little \u2018ho-hum\u2019. The colourfully stylish surroundings do their best to keep us \u2018entertained\u2019 and engaged, visually. The dialogue is unnecessarily quick that it becomes a background mumble in some cases.<\/div>\n
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Smith\u2019s wit only seeps through occasionally that you yearn for the odd wisecrack or three, if only to recognise the actor as himself. It\u2019s Robbie that comes off the best, combining seduction and charm with leading-girl confidence.<\/div>\n
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It\u2019s only after Nicky and Jess finally meet again in the second half that the story gets really interesting \u2013 bar one neatly-shot scene in the first half that shows sports fans in New Orleans being fleeced of their valuables with frightening speed. The irony of all of this is pickpockets tend to blend in; Robbie as blonde bombshell Jess sticks way out.<\/div>\n
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The second half keeps you interested, purely as you want to see where it goes with the Formula 1 con angle, and Ficarra and Requa do not disappoint keeping things edgy \u2013 and yet more exotic surroundings, outfits, cars and tanned flesh. It\u2019s like an advert for luxury goods straight out of a Mile High magazine. Santoro gives a convincing turn as the unhinged Garriga too. After all the high-life fizz on show, it\u2019s the very end that leaves things a little flat and might have some of you wanting to see alternatives shot and disguarded on the cutting room floor, especially after a tense standoff between the tricksters and an irritate Garriga.<\/div>\n
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As heist flicks go, Focus<\/em> is a lavishly shot example with an attractive cast to boot, but not as stylishly planned out at Ocean\u2019s<\/em>. Whether it satisfies the basics of such a crime genre is down to how taxing a watch you want \u2013 it certainly suffices as a reasonable date movie.<\/div>\n
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3\/5 stars<\/strong><\/div>\n
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By @FilmGazer<\/div>\n
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