Review of Focus, directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa

If you’re new here, welcome! This is my blog where I do movie, television, and books reviews with a dash of theater and travel whenever I feel like it. Lately, I’ve been on a roll when it comes to blog posts, as I’m in a period that I call “funemployed.” It means I’ve been waiting for two months for an opportunity that I was supposed to have to come to fruition, but I had enough savings to cruise through this time.

And since there will probably never be a period in my life again where I am sitting around looking for something to do, I’ve been slowly crossing off movies from my list. I am a master procrastinator when it comes to watching movies. When something exciting is about to come about, it sometimes takes me years to get to it.

I think of it now as a lot of different things competing for my attention, but I also say it’s a healthy dose of procrastination. Running a movie blog does help me eventually get to these movies though, and that’s how I ended up watching Focus.

It had just been added to Netflix at the time of typing this, and it was considered to be one of the movies that was in the top ten at the time. I was curious about that, and I knew the movie had come out years ago andI forgot about it. I had nothing else to do on this cold Wednesday, so here I was pressing play.

And I watched it all the way through in one go. I did debate giving up about halfway through, but decided to tough it out and see if it got better. It kind of did, but also didn’t.

Let’s get into the review before I start rambling too much.

A conman becomes romantically attached to a grifter, leading to some problems.

Our main character in this movie is Nicky, who works as a conman. One day when he’s out on the town, he meets Jess, a grifter who he spots immediately as being one. He knows that she’s trying to rob him, but still goes up to the room with her, where she puts on an act with a fake jealous husband.

He chews them out for putting on an act, declaring that he knew this entire time what they were doing. He gives some advice: don’t lose focus when in a situation where someone couldn’t anticipate it happening. From this moment on, he’s going to be more attached to Jess, and while getting drinks with her, he tells her that his father shot his granddad.

Turns out it’s a tactic to show loyalty, which is a bit odd, but not unexpected. Nicky then heads down to New Orleans, and Jess follows him while begging for Nicky to take her under his wing. It’s there she becomes acquainted with his usual crew, and then he teaches her how to pick pockets more easily.

Eventually, though, these two develop a romance, despite Nicky trying to remember that his father told him to never get involved with other people you work with. The stakes are raised at the Super Bowl, as Nicky gambles all of his money away to a hotshot that beats him.

He has to win that money back, so he tricks the guy into picking a player on the field based on what Jess is seeing. Looks like he has been dropping hints the entire day to pick the number 55, and when Nicky outsmarts the gambler, he gives them all of the money back.

Nicky gives Jess her part of the money, then tells their driver to take her to the airport. She’s distraught by this and cries as she watches him get into another. Three years pass and Nicky is in Argentina’s capital. He has a job with a motorsport team owned by a billionaire, and the guy wants to beat an Australian at his own game.

Now what Nicky needs to do is pretend to be a technician and sell the other guy crappy oil for their race cars. It’s at a party though that Nicky runs into Jess again, who works for the guy. He starts drinking, gets fired from his job, and is then recruited for the competition.

However, he has a new mission: he wants Jess. They get back together, but when they’re in bed one morning, the head of security comes looking because he’s suspicious. Jess flees out the window, and then they get away. Nicky sells the part to the competition and other teams.

But as he prepares to go back to the US with Jess, they’re caught. She’s tied up as Nicky is beaten by the men, and then the businessman who hired them back is convinced that they worked together to steal from him. Nicky, to prevent her from being strangled, says he tricked her, and then Jess reveals she only tried to go for the businessman for his watch.

Nicky is then shot, and we learn the head of security is actually his dad. He tells Jess he avoided everything major, then helps revive Nicky and lets them flee. He drives them to the hospital, and tells them why he left Nicky: he walked away from the streets. He says love will get them killed, then takes the money.

Jess helps Nicky into the hospital as the credits roll, and he notices she stole the expensive watch from the businessman.

Overall Thoughts

Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with this movie. It’s a fine movie, and the main leads have some chemistry, but there was nothing about it that made me really want to keep watching.

Like it’s fine as a movie, as I just said. I think my problem with it is the fact I’ve seen all of this before, and it doesn’t really add much to the movie world as an action or thriller. It’s just kind of a romance that checks off all of the boxes and nothing more.

I almost gave up watching it right before the time skip, too. But I’m dedicated to finishing most movies, even when I shouldn’t, and I powered through. I will say that Robbie and Smith give off good performances for what they were given. I was impressed with Robbie especially, but she’s solid in most roles.

I’d say watch this if you’re interested and haven’t already. Taste is such a subjective thing, and if you like it, neither of us are wrong. And that’s okay! That’s the beauty of consuming art at the end of the day.

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