Review of Focus (2015) by Preston L — 25 Jun 2015

Focus is the story of a modern day conman, played by Will Smith, who recruits and trains an up and coming conwoman, played by Margot Robbie, and the grifting that they do, more importantly two major grifts over 3 years and how it creates and strains their budding relationship with each other. Since the movie involves a lot of deception if I say much more of the plot I will ruin the whole movie for all of you and I work hard to keep these review mostly spoiler free.

Things I Liked:

Will Smith. It was nice to see Will Smith back doing something he shines in again. It's been a while since I can think of the last really solid role he has had. He plays the role of the slick and fast talking con man well and he holds your attention almost all the way through the movie. I really enjoyed Smith in this and I am excited to see him move forward and (hopefully) get his career back to where it was headed 10-20 years ago.

Margot Robbie. If anyone in this is better than Will Smith, it's Margot Robbie. This is the first thing I have seen her in and I wasn't sure what to expect; although I heard she was very good in Wolf of Wall Street. She stole the screen when she was on it. She played the role with a great combination of tact, intelligence, charm, and naïveté. I found myself rooting for her character over Smith half the time and hoping that she showed him up or put him in his place. She was much more interesting and compelling and shows a lot of skill as an actress.

Things I Didn't Like:

Pace. This movie is SLOW! This movie drags from point to point with many unneeded moments in between. They could have made this a short and it would have been twice as interesting cause everything would have been happening much more quickly. In any good heist film you have to keep the tension and the energy and this film drops both all over the place. I found myself much less interested in the story because the story wasn't sure what it was trying to tell. It was long, boring, and had a lot of moments where you check out and stop caring what happens.

All the Other Characters. I found the two leads to be great. But everyone else was there to either drive plot, or be the butt of a joke. None of them had major personalities, none of them were interesting, almost all were forgettable, and by the end you just ask yourself "why are they even here?" The film could have been just the two major characters and it would have been more interesting than it was.

Overall. Overall the film has some interesting moments. The two leads have great characters and the chemistry between the two is strong. But the film suffers from delayed moments in the plot and a lack of development of its other characters. And ultimately is not as strong as it could be or as many other films like it are. But I still enjoyed it enough that I didn't feel like my time was wasted and would recommend it for anyone who is a fan of either Will Smith or Margot Robbie.