Focus (2015)

In the midst of veteran con man Nicky's latest scheme, a woman from his past - now an accomplished femme fatale - shows up and throws his plans for a loop.

Directors:

Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Writers:

Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Stars:

Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Will Smith	...	Nicky
Margot Robbie	...	Jess
Adrian Martinez	...	Farhad
Gerald McRaney	...	Owens
Rodrigo Santoro	...	Garriga
BD Wong	...	Liyuan
Brennan Brown	...	Horst
Robert Taylor	...	McEwen
Dotan Bonen	...	Gordon
Griff Furst	...	Gareth
Stephanie Honoré	...	Janice
David Stanford	...	Drunken Stranger
Dominic Fumusa	...	Jared
Steve Kim	...	Liyuan’s Bodyguard
Don Yesso	...	Card Player / Football Coach

Storyline

Nicky Spurgeon is an extremely accomplished con man who takes an amateur con artist, Jess, under his wing. Nicky and Jess become romantically involved, and with Nicky's profession of being a liar and a cheater for a living, he realizes that deception and love are things that don't go together. They split, only to see each other three years later... And things get messy.

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Plot Keywords:

con artist | deception | seduction | older man younger woman relationship | doggystyle sex | 

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Taglines:

Never Drop The Con.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Argentina

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

27 February 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fokus

Filming Locations:

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$50,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$18,685,137, 1 March 2015, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$53,862,963

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$159,062,963

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kramer & Sigman Films, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, Zaftig Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Margot Robbie was vacationing with her brother on an island in Croatia when she got the call that the directors wanted her to audition. She had arrived at the hotel at 6 a.m., and needed to catch a flight the same day. She packed everything in 20 minutes and took a catamaran to the main island, then a bus to the airport. She waited in the airport for six hours, flew to France, then got a six-hour flight to New York. When she arrived in New York, she found out her luggage had been lost. However, she got to the audition on time, wearing denim shorts, a t-shirt, and no makeup. When Will Smith arrived late, saying he "was coming from Queens", Robbie said "Yeah? Well, I just came from an island off Croatia and I'm here on time." Robbie believes that reply got her the role.

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Goofs

When the handbag is returned and they are speaking over glasses of wine, the levels in the glasses change as does the size of one of the wine glasses.

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Quotes

Nicky: I'm all crewed up, sweetie.
Jess: Oh come on, PLEASE. Can we just skip the part where I speak through thinly veiled allure and lead you to believe there is some earth-shattering hump in the works, cause I suck at that kind of stuff. I just want in.
Nicky: There is no earth-shattering hump in the works?
Jess: Yep.
Nicky: I don't even get thinly veiled allure?
Jess: No
Nicky: No baby voice. No lingering eye contact?
Jess: I'm hopeless.
Nicky: That's all my favorite shit.
Jess: I'm sorry.
[...]

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Connections

References The Bodyguard (1992)

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Soundtracks

You Don't Have To Worry (Guts Remix)
Written by Dorian Burton and Herman Kelley
Performed by Doris & Kelley
Courtesy of Brunswick Record Corp.
By arrangement with Ace Music Services, LLC

User Reviews

Smith and Robbie are terrific in sexy romantic thriller

Those that had to get Fifty Shades of Grey out of their system did so on opening weekend. Those who were curious did so the following weekend. Those that are going this weekend are probably just going to be drunks and guys who wear trench coats a lot (even in summer). We need a new adult romance now and Focus fits the bill, and also puts way more of an emphasis on the word "adult". It's also a return to form for Will Smith, looking for a boost after that After Earth debacle in 2013. He's still every bit the playa we want him to be in a movie directed by Glenn Ficcara and John Requa (Crazy, Stupid, Love) that has a stylish sexiness in almost every scene.

Smith plays Nicky, the kind of confident, well dressed mystery man who doesn't seem to mind eating at a fancy restaurant alone. He's approached by Jess (Margot Robbie), they get to talking, and soon they're both going back to his hotel room. It's a con but Jess is an amateur, leading to a scene of sly humor that Smith plays to perfection. But Jess wants to learn how to "dance in the dark" as Nicky puts it and so after learning a few tricks from him, she follows him to New Orleans where she finds herself a member of his team of pickpockets. Through sleight of hands and various scams, Nicky has a whole network of people focusing on gambling, credit card fraud, tricking adulterous married dudes and more. They clean up, which is part of the fun.

This movie is all about being smooth and it revels in that almost as much as it does in the beauty of its two stars and the vibrancy of the place they're in. New Orleans, from Mardi Gras to a casino to the Superdome, supplies a perfect backdrop as these two get frisky and flirty with each other. They have great chemistry, it's sexy but shows just the right amount of restraint for two people who are into each other but can't risk distraction in their line of work. By far the best scene in the movie though comes when Nick bets with an Asian businessman (an excellent B.D. Wong) during a football game. It's crazy just how out of control it gets and it ends awesomely.

The movie can only go downhill from a scene as audacious as this and it does. Nicky and Jess suddenly go separate ways only to reunite three years later in Argentina where Nicky is helping out a grand prix owner (Rodrigo Santoro) that Jess just happens to be dating. Do these two share real feelings or is one or both just playing the other? Who knows, but we're pretty sure that Ficarra and Requa lose the playful spark between these two in Argentina and there's an ending plot twist that I'm not sure really works. Gerald McRaney has a few good scenes as a hard-ass, suspicious bodyguard here but it's Smith, playing a guy with a gift of gab, and Robbie, a beauty with not just a great smile but also poise, charm, and humor, who keep Focus afloat even when the movie doesn't seem quite sure of itself.