Don’t get conned into thinking ‘Focus’ is a good movie – it’s not

“Focus” is a slick new movie about a high-stakes con man and a gorgeous woman who wants to be his protege. Since those two are played by Will Smith and the new “It Girl” Margot Robbie, you can rest assured this movie is going to be a very polished, high-gloss affair. Lots of rich, beautiful people dressed to the nines and hanging out in swanky 5-star hotels in exotic locations.

But all the shine in the world can’t cover up the fact this is a tired and empty exercise in filmmaking. “Focus” may be about con men but it’s a con itself, and not in a good way.

The problem with most con movies, and with “Focus” especially, is that once you realize it’s all about con artists, the audience knows not to trust anyone in the movie. When you start suspecting everything that comes out of any character’s mouth, it’s hard for the movie to gain enough traction to con the audience, which is the ultimate goal of a good con movie. It’s hard to trick the wary.

Will Smith plays a third-generation con man who teaches a young woman (played by Robbie) the tricks of the trade.

He first shows her how to use her good looks and voluptuous body to pick the pockets of distracted men everywhere. After she masters that, he introduces her to the art of the long con, in which you set up a victim days or weeks before the sting.

After a particularly risky (and implausible, if you ask me) long con at the Super Bowl, these two potential lovebirds go their separate ways. (This is about halfway through the movie.)

When they meet up again, a few years later, they’re both unsure of whether they can trust each other. In fact who lied to whom becomes a constant source of conversation.

It turns out that Smith is now working for a Formula One race car owner who also happens to be dating Robbie. This owner hires Smith to “con” rival racecar teams but Robbie’s presence complicates things for Smith.

Are they working at cross-purposes? Neither can figure out what the other is up to. Both profess to have feelings for each other but do they really or are they just setting each other up for yet another con? There are so many back-and-forth personal cons in this movie, you lose interest. Why? Because neither of the characters have enough emotional depth for us to care about. It’s like watching a series of card tricks – after a while, it just gets tedious.

Who cares?

The only way a movie like this can salvage itself this late in the game is to have a surprise ending that’s so shocking and yet so right that you feel satisfyingly snookered.

“Focus” does attempt that kind of ending but, like the earlier Super Bowl con, it’s so improbable that it comes off as desperate rather than ingenious.

In the movie Will Smith says that he “can convince anyone of anything.”

Oh yeah? Sorry, Will. You can’t convince me this is a good movie.