Will Smith, Margot Robbie charm in ‘Focus’

Review

If the mark of a good con artist is that he or she makes you think you know exactly what’s going on - when of course you haven’t a clue — that’s also the mark of a good con-artist movie, isn’t it? To make you feel like you totally get what’s about to happen — “Oh yeah, I’ve seen this in tons of movies,” you think — and then, boom. That’s not what happens at all. See, you lost your focus for a second.

“It’s about distraction,” explains Nicky, the con artist played by Will Smith in Focus , the consistently entertaining new film by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa ( Crazy, Stupid, Love ). And that’s what the filmmakers do to us, too — they distract us more than once by making us think we’re watching a predictable, even silly story. We’re lured into feeling smarter than the movie — until we’re not. How did we miss that?

BELIEVABLE HEAT

Of course, deft plot twists aren’t enough. A con-artist movie has to make you find something sympathetic in the artist. And here, the film centres on a romance, so we need to be able to invest in that as well. Luckily, Smith and relative newcomer Margot Robbie ( The Wolf of Wall Street ) generate believable heat together while also appealing to us individually, and so we care what happens to them — even as we keep changing our minds as to which one we should care about most.

Smith’s Nicky and Robbie’s Jess meet cute in New York, where the gorgeous Jess is trying to escape from a creepy guy at the bar. They end up in Jess’ hotel room, where suddenly they’re caught in the act by Jess’ jealous, gun-toting “husband”. Only, Nicky figures out right away it’s a scam. Jess realises she’s met a real pro. “Tutor me,” she pleads.

Everything goes swimmingly for the two — and they’re falling for each other, besides. But romance is a tricky thing when you’re a lifelong trickster. As the plot twists and turns, it’s best to stop wondering who’s doing what to whom and just, er, focus on watching Smith, wily and vulnerable at the same time, match wits (and hearts?) with Robbie, who makes a case here for more leading-lady roles. It would be fun to watch these two together again. Maybe a sequel called “Re-focus”? — AP