Focus Review: 8 Reasons Will Smith's New Movie Is A Con

RATING: ˜…˜… Focus is a con. Not in the typical sense of a movie being a con, with a misleading marketing campaign making audiences go watch something they don't want. In fact, it's probably one of the most honestly advertised movies in recent memory - like the trailer it's a rather flashy experience that leads heavily on Margot Robbie's hotness that leaves you decidedly underwhelmed. No, Focus, the first movie headlined by Will Smith since the cataclysmic disaster of After Earth, is a con in the way it tries to trick the viewer, using cinematic slight-of-hand to try and pass a poorly constructed film with an aimless screenplay off as some classy mid-range thriller. And given that it's a movie about con-men, that's both deliciously ironic and incredibly audacious. The film is a run of borderline imaginative ideas brought to life by unoriginal filmmaking techniques, but it's all dressed up in a shiny and diverting coat that means at a first glance it feels genuine, the lie of the whole thing only becoming apparent as you actually think it through. Of course, it's probably not meant to come across that way; delivered with earnest, directing duo Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (the team behind Crazy, Stupid, Love) probably thought they were making a smart and stylish crime dramedy, unaware they were really just creating a showreel of over-used techniques. The central idea had promise too - Will Smith's a con-man who trains up Margot Robbie's small-time crook, partaking in increasingly higher-stakes hustles as romance blooms. Want to see how they squandered that? Come along and see how Focus is all talk and no substance.