Focus review: This con caper is Will Smith's worst film so far

Ever since Hancock’s third act killed the rest of the movie back in 2008, the world had one singular question – what the hell happened to Will Smith? Once regarded as one of the most successful movie stars, a really fine actor and a universally likable person, Smith has been doing the opposite of all those things for the past seven years. After shoehorning his son into the movie business and rendering a turkey in the form of After Earth, Smith continues his crusade towards mediocrity with his worst film to date – ironically named Focus.

Directed by the tag team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, Focus has none of the heart or humour of their previous films I Love You Phillip Morris and Crazy Stupid Love. What Focus has, is unfortunately a lot of dead air and a parade of its glitzy stars in even glitzier locations. The con artist genre has been done to death and yet the filmmakers attempt it. Predictably, they fail, really hard.

Smith plays Nicky Spurgeon, a veteran professional New Orleans conman who finds a grafter, aka an intern, in the ultra hot blonde Jess (Margot Robbie). Nicky has his formula in place – there is no ‘big con’ like in Ocean’s 11 where everyone makes so much money they can sit back and retire. His formula is to make little by little, at regular intervals. It’s the only interesting part of the movie because it subverts the nature of con capers. What follows, unfortunately, is the usual cocktail of predictable twists, one-upping and a cringe-inducing romance between the two.

A massive setback is neither of the lead characters are likable. Nicky is unscrupulous in a nasty way, rather than endearing. There’s nothing to root for in him, nor is he despicable enough to make him audacious. Jess, on the other hand, is the regular femme fatale, who goes from pretending to be the dimwit learner to being a damsel in distress, and then actually becoming the damsel in distress, and finally again pretending to be one. Nothing about her character makes sense, and she just constantly ends up as a needy loser, a trait that makes Smith da man, rather than the one who gets upped by ‘the weaker sex’.

Smith has his face all scrunched up, possibly to play a ‘different’ character from his usual Big Willie Style but he just looks in dire need of a drink and completely uninterested in whatever is happening on set. Robbie, although incredible to look at, is handed such a poorly written role, neither her looks nor charm make any impact. Seldom has Smith not had any chemistry with his leading lady, and there’s zero fizz between these two. They remind you of the Johnny Depp-Angelina Jolie misfire The Tourist, which similarly demonstrated how big attractive stars can still fail really hard at both romance and filmmaking.

The biggest problem, however, is that the central con is utterly rubbish. Nicky tries to con a racecar company while working for another company, and the amount of access he has to both company’s inner dealings is laughable even for a movie. It’s also a really dull and boring con, all you can do is wait for the inevitable twists and the predictable happy ending.

It just goes to show how much effort went into making the Ocean’s sequels, and even with Steven Soderbergh’s talent as a filmmaker, they’re considered inferior to the original one. That said, they’re miles ahead of the dull codswallop that is Focus.