Focus (2015), R, ★★★

Margot Robbie being flirtatious with Will Smith. 

"You can never lose focus." True that, even in life but for instance, this movie has the saying because you cannot fault a mistake for one second, otherwise, you will probably end up dead. However, even if you get attached to someone for too long while during the con game, you will also probably be ending up dead. Based on all these heist or con movies, it is an attentive and entertaining genre to follow because you never know what will happen regarding the characters or the product or their reputations. It also will depend on the chemistry between the characters. Based on chemistry and fun in the first two-thirds of the movie, it is a smooth operator of a film which is, as a whole, enough as an entertainment.

The con man Nicky Spurgeon (Will Smith) is at a bar at New York City where he sees a beautiful and seductive woman named Jess (Margot Robbie) passing up another man. They both go up to the hotel room to make out until a man bursts into a room with a gun, threatening to shoot Nicky. Nicky improvises saying that he has cancer and that Jess says to him that the man is onto them. Nicky stops Jess and the man commenting how they should have handled it when they want to rob him before he leaves.

Jess finds Nicky a few nights later and begs him to teach her his ways after doing research on him. Nicky agrees to teach her and says the act of conning people is a game of FOCUS. He shows her the game of how she works her hands when stealing. Nicky takes his business to New Orleans with his friend, Forst (Brennan Brown) and their team of con artists to see if Jess proves her worth. She does and she is welcomed to the team.

Over time, Nicky and Jess develop a mutual attraction but then after a football game and a gambling situation, it goes into a complicated path that sets up into sort of a cat-and-mouse game. But, is it really a cat-and-mouse game?

She's seducing him into having a drink or is she?

As I said, this was a thrilling and tight heist film for the first two-thirds as we see the development of the character, Nicky, as he is a little more complicated than he looks. He has a depth and a vulnerable side of him that we try to explore but because he is such a tricky character, we cannot really see where his character is going until the very end. It is more character-driven than usual in your normal heist film. The film is glamorous in its atmosphere and setting that it revolves the characters' integrity of getting rich. Almost every set-up works but almost every one of its pay-offs seems too twisted and ridiculous at times that the story becomes too good for itself.

Will Smith gives a solid performance as a charming but vulnerable, skilled fella who has an expertise in these conning games. This, I think and I hope, begins an uphill redemption to his career. Again, it is a start but it does not start off with a bang just yet. Robbie, of course, is sexy and genuine in her character that even at times, when it is believable, her character tries to become real but sort of derails into almost of a tool of the story especially in the twisted last 20 minutes. She still is good in the film and has chemistry with Will Smith but she needed more background in her character and should have been more developed towards the end. Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney and B.D. Wong have fun in their smaller roles as they provide tension in their own scenes or sequences.

In the last third of the film when they are in Buenos Aires, it starts out decent but then when it takes a few too many twists towards the end, it becomes too preposterous that we find out why one of the characters is there and the reason is ludicrous and in the end, it becomes not as fun when the stakes are high. But, the film looks crisp and tight and directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra of Crazy, Stupid Love fame do a solid job with pacing and let the actors doing their thing. They are really good when the movie is loose when the cons are fun and the characters' chemistry crackle with sensuality, tension and humor. They just did too much with the last third. However, I did enjoy the movie as a glamorous experience of the con world and also based on the charm and the chemistry of the two leading actors. Their previous movie, Crazy, Stupid Love is underrated but better, but for now, I give it a recommendation with some reservations.

***