Focus

FOCUS

Directors : Glenn Ficara and John Requa
Year : 2015
Genre : Drama
Rating : ***1/2

 

'Focus' is a movie of two halves. The first is a gripping, enthralling and incredibly entertaining heist picture that is filled to the brim with slick dialogue, beautiful cinematography and wonderfully dynamic performances. The second half however is a much more basic and pedestrian affair that fails to make the most of it's many opportunities and completely destroys the momentum that the preceding hour had built up so very well.

In 'Focus', Will Smith plays the suave Nicky - an incredibly talented and adept con man who, after failing to fall for one of her pitifully obvious schemes, takes amateur thief Jess (Margot Robbie) under his wing and teaches her the methods and techniques he uses to pull off elaborate heists. With the help of a crack team of criminals, Nicky and Jess find themselves becoming richer and richer by the day by stealing the wallets, purses and jewelry from the oblivious inhabitants of New Orleans. 

However, love soon starts getting in the way for the couple and after generating the most money he has ever gained in a single day, Nicky sends a heartbroken Jess away. But when the two reunite three years under the wildest of coincidences, anger and betrayal soon put both of their lives in mortal danger.

Directed by film making partners Glenn Ficara and John Requa, 'Focus' is continually brimming with energy and pizazz. Thanks to both the beautiful cinematography by Xavier Perez Grobet and the minimalistic score by DeVotchKas Nick Urata, the film looks and sounds terrific - echoing the stylish and slick ambience of Nicholas Winding Refns glacial 'Drive' or Eran Creevys little seen London-based crime thriller 'Welcome To The Punch'. Neon lighting, glassy exteriors and shiny surfaces all help to add to the high class tone of the movie while the frenetic camera work and eye-catching mise en scene combine to embue 'Focus' with an almost hypnotic palette. For my money, the movie is actually is the best looking of the year so far and it only becomes better looking when it's attractive central cast are seen wandering about through it.

However, pretty colours and interesting zooms and pans can only do so much and when all is said and done, the story of 'Focus' fails to match the ambition of it's production values. Let me rephrase that - the second half of 'Focus' fails to match the ambition of it's production values. The first is easily one of the most engaging and intense con movies I have ever seen with a climax rivaling that of any of the classics of the subgenre.

Taking us through every single slight of hand movement and psychological manipulation, Ficara and Requa completely envelope us in the world of the con man and thanks to some nifty but carefully chosen editing skills, 'Focus' never becomes too rambunctious for it's own good. In fact, I was surprised how restrained it was. It would have been so easy to lazily cut between characters giving each other knowing glances and flurries of hands grabbing at things to the point where we have absolutely no idea whats going on like many other second-rate heist films have done in the past. But instead, Ficara and Requa hold their camera back to allow us to see every single mechanism of the ingenious heist happen in real time, enabling their audience to feel as if they are in on the game just as much as the characters on screen are. It is this inclusion that makes 'Focus' so fun to watch and for about an hour, I was on the edge of my seat and mentally adding stars to my rating by the minute.

However, things come to a screeching halt when the second half of the film abruptly kicks in. Wildly unrealistic double crosses begin happening all over the place, characters become more and more diluted and the sharp and witty screenplay of the first hour is replaced with cliched soliloquy and generic 'trailer friendly banter. Even the chemistry between it's central cast seems somewhat secondary to the plot and while I didn't find myself absolutely hating the second and third acts of the film, it is really hard for me to think of another movie that began with so much and ended up with so little. 'Focus' really should have taken it's own advice. Having said that, if there is one thing that is a constant in the movie it is the quality of the performances from it's central cast and each do a wonderful job of creating memorable and believable characters.

Ever since his days in 'The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air', Will Smith has always been an extremely engaging and likable screen presence and 'Focus' uses his uncanny magnetism and charisma to great effect. His dialogue is sharp and direct and his performance is as cool and collected as any other of his cinematic roles. Smiths' cocky on screen persona is perfectly balanced with that of Margot Robbies Jess; a sleek and seductive femme fatale who uses her sexuality and beautiful figure as her professional equipment to get what she wants in life. With 'About Time', 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' and now 'Focus', Robbie is becoming one of the most enjoyable actresses to watch on the big screen and I look forward to seeing where her career will eventually take her. 

Supporting Smith and Robbie are a host of other great actors including Rodrigo Santoro, B.D Wong, Gerald McRaney and Adrian Martinez all giving strong and convincing performances - especially McRaney who gives off a threatening but lovable 'Mike Ermentraut' -type vibe to his character. But it is Smith and Robbie who remain the focal point and the two do a great job of holding our holding our attention; even when nothing much is going on around them.

While I can't fully recommend 'Focus' for the cohesiveness of its narrative, I most certainly can for its astonishing visual flair, the quality of the cast and its phenomenal first hour. I had a great time watching it and I am very glad to see Will Smith finally break the chain of turkeys that has dogged his career for the past 5 years or so. It is the movies laborious and frankly ridiculous second and third acts that prevent 'Focus' from being a great film rather than a good one. That being said, in these days of rubbish CGI blockbusters and bottom of the barrel comedies, a good film is certainly nothing to turn your nose up at and when compared to the releases we have had so far in 2015, 'Focus' is one of the better non-award contender releases of the past 3 months.