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

8. Margot Robbie's Sex Appeal Hides That She Doesn't Have A Character

Margot Robbie is one of the hottest rising stars in Hollywood. Geddit? It's got a double meaning because hottest normally means popular, but here it refers to her desirable physical attributes. OK, so that's a tat joke, but it's apt given that the fact Margot Robbie is ridonkulously hot is the extent of her character in Focus. The film sets up very early on that distracting the mark is one of the central tools of a con man, and Jess is the film's biggest cinematic equivalent of that. Appearing in the very first scene and never off screen for more than ten minutes, she draws (at least) half of the audience's attention away from the film's rather flimsy narrative structure. Robbie even switches up her hairstyle and clothes (although it's always something either figure-hugging or unsuitably skimpy) from scene to scene, ensuring the novelty of a hot lead never fully wears off and no one realises that she, the second billed character no less, has no development or arc. Aside from being an object of desire for Will Smith's Nicky, Jess is little more than a plot object and her personality is never shown; various quirks are explicitly spelled out, but none of it is ever quantified. Contrast this to The Wolf Of Wall Street, Robbie's break-out hit where she played banker Jordan Belfort's second wife. That film played with Robbie's sexiness too, but it was all to advance the plot - Naomi is the embodiment of Belfort's goals and repeatedly uses her physique as a tool against her cheating, drugged-up husband.