Review of Focus (2014) by Tyler R — 08 Oct 2016

One star is for Smith and Robbie, the other star is for B.D. Wong. You have two good actors who have pretty good chemistry and one over the top cameo sitting snuggly in a film that gets wrapped up in its own coolness, which then causes it to throw an asinine à 1/4ber twist in at the end.

Focus follows a con-artist who takes a protege in under his wing as he both teaches her the business and falls for her. It's a somewhat interesting setup that relies solely on the leads to make it work.

And luckily for Smith and Robbie, they make it work. Unfortunately, they are only able to make their own parts work, because the entire film around them is a huge mess that relies on the audience's stupidity and goodwill, which is stretches very thin.

There are situations that happen that just don't happen in the real world. I know, I know, this is just a film, but when these situations happen in rapid succession without any possible reasoning behind them, then the audience is being talked down to.

And that asinine ending I mentioned? The amount of "twists" they threw at the audience would make Shyamalan blush. By the time the film mercifully ends, the audience is left with Ocean's 11-lite, and a (hopeful) resurgence for Will Smith's career.