Focus (2015) * * *

Directed by:  Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

Starring:  Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney, B.D. Wong

We first meet Nick (Smith) in a restaurant dining alone.    A stunning blonde named Jess (Robbie) sits down suddenly, asking Nick to pretend he is her boyfriend in order for her to avoid the advances of a drunken buffoon.     Most men would not resist such an offer because Jess is a knockout.   Nicky is no exception, although he sees things that other men wouldn't.    This is especially helpful during the payoff scene of this encounter.

Focus is about Nick, who is a professional con artist, and Jess, who is not as she first seems.    Movies like Focus can be maddening to review because, like many movies about cons and scams, there are many plot points that you don't want to give away.    Discussing the plot can be very vague, but maybe that's a blessing in disguise.     This way, I don't have to get wrapped up in too many details. 

Let's just say that Nick goes to New Orleans during Superbowl week (although the movie refers to the game as "Major Football Championship"-it seems the NFL wouldn't give their blessing to use its property).    Jess follows him there, or was she expected?    Nick agrees to show Jess the ropes on being a con artist, including petty theft and ID theft.    Jess is a natural, mostly because men believe whatever a beautiful woman in a low cut dress says.     Nick and Jess attend "the big game", which isn't simply for fun.    There is a nice payoff here which I wouldn't dream of revealing.    One minor distraction is the championship game itself, played between the Sharks and the Rhinos...I think.    Very few things break the rhythm of a scene like the fact that this game, very clearly intended to be the Superbowl, isn't referred to as such.    Was this the championship game for the Any Given Sunday league?    I halfway expected Al Pacino to make a cameo as one of the coaches.   

Nick jumps Jess, who has fallen for Nick and the two find themselves in Brazil three years later involved with the same person, although for different reasons.     Nick is scheming against an arrogant Formula One racer (Santoro) by promising him that he can get a hold of technology which will make his car a few seconds faster.     Jess is dating that same racer and this becomes a tangled web.    The racer's henchman is a codger named Owens (McRaney), who distrusts Nick from the start and for good reason.  

Like many films about con artists, Focus sinks or swims with the appeal of its stars.    Smith is cool, but wounded and perhaps searching for the one thing that has eluded him his whole life...love.    As one character puts it, love is the deadliest thing in Nick's profession.     Smith inhabits his scenes with an easy grace and charm.     Robbie isn't just gorgeous, but someone who we can't quite make heads or tails of.    She has innate mystery.    We can't tell if she is playing or being played.    I also enjoyed McRaney's gruff, curmudgeonly demeanor.    He isn't fooled by much and isn't afraid to ruffle feathers.

Focus, of course, is a film about cons with the expected and sometimes unexpected twists and turns that such films always have.    We watch these films anticipating when the Big Reveal will be and still being blindsided when it does come.    Focus reminds me of walking through a haunted house in an amusement park.    We know someone will jump out at us at a certain point.    We anticipate it, but we still get a jolt when it does finally happen.