Review of Focus (2014) by Tawonna G — 30 Apr 2015

Film Review by Zanele Jiane.

Will Smith's first crime movie, he probably did it because the net effect is that the audience wakes up from their collective slumber and realise we are "plunged" right In the middle of a game whose rules are unknown to us, we are oblivious and wholly vulnerable.

The flick is a stunning one, in the inciting incident, there are dazzling sleight of hands techniques are just wow, at the beginning you think this is a waste of time watching an elaborately choreographed dance sequence where people are robbed their valuables, you think who gets anywhere in life stealing a watch until we are invited behind the scenes of this crazy operation then we realise - there is a bigger goal and rewarding scheme at play.

Will Smith is a teacher who missed his calling, throughout the movie he teaches his protégé and us the mark about the game, and really makes conning people effortless, once in the second act you start to never trust a scene until it is played out, the movie fails to maximise the thrill by constantly falling back on expository mode, to prevent the audience from being lost, this level of neatness is insulting to the intelligence of the audience. Some scene may remind us of NOW YOU SEE ME and OCEAN'S ELEVEN but the movie is unique enough to avoid plagiarism. In both movies the real players are known while in Focus, this identity is mute giving it an edge on the surprise front.

There is one scene just a few minutes before the end that will dampen all kinds of hope for a happy ending. The ending is too calculated and dull, with a guttural speech from a character we were trained to hate.

Margot Robbie is delicious to watch and Will Smith enjoys dominance throughout the movie, their chemistry is entirely heart-warming. Will Smith's Nick is not matched adequately and therefore seldom seems vulnerable and this leads to minimised drama and tension.

Adrian Martinez is exciting to watch and gets plenty of well-deserved screen time, he somehow resembles Brian Cox, Griff Furst and Will Smith's voices complement one another, these are well trained voices, calculated to give us the gist of the movie, this is proof that Glenn Ficarra and John Requa worked their butts off to give us the best use of our time.

This is otherwise a nice movie to watch and doubt whether it is re-watchable.