I saw Focus because there was nothing else that fit my time needs. I wanted to see a movie and grab lunch before work started at four. There wasn’t a lot of risk in seeing Focus because Will Smith is a pretty reliable actor. Most of the movies he’s done have been good or really good, with a few exceptions. So was Focus able to deliver a sharp movie? Or did it turn into a blurry mess? Keep reading and find out.
The thing you have to know before you buy your ticket for Focus is that at the heart of the movie is a love story. The previews are a little misleading and promise a flashy crime drama with a romantic side story, but in reality the love story took center stage and the heist aspects served as a backdrop. The jobs they did were still really cool and fun to watch. They were clever and helped build the atmosphere so while it wasn’t a true heist movie it all set the scene for a unique and slightly frustrating romance. A funny thing about this movie is that both lead actors have been cast in the Suicide Squad movie. Margot Robbie is playing Harley Quinn and Will Smith is Deadshot. In the New 52 story line they have a little fling, so maybe Focus is a preview of things to come though their characters in this are far different from their characters in Suicide Squad.
The acting was exactly what you’d expect for this kind of movie. Nothing as epic as Smith’s performance in Seven Pounds or The Pursuit of Happyness but it was still good. Margot Robbie (who played Jess Barrnett) had a couple scenes where she got to shine. My favorite character though was played by B.D. Wong (Jurassic Park, Law and Order SVU) and he stole the show for the small amount of time he was on the screen. He was able to add not just humor but a nice level of tension as well that couldn’t have been easy to pull off.
Focus had a great cast of supporting characters that didn’t nearly get enough screen time. They may have been your standard heist movie back up crew, but they helped give more life to the movie. I know that the story focused (ha! get it?) on Jess and Nicky (Smith) but it wouldn’t have been that hard to have a few more scenes with some of his crew. They felt expendable. Like the writers pulled them out of their box of tools to move the plot along and then put them back when they were done. I wasn’t expecting this to be an Italian Job or Sneakers clone, but it would have been nice to have more of the impressive and entertaining criminal aspect.
One of the biggest problems I had with the movie was the force fed foreshadowing. It was early on in the movie and it was so blatant that it stayed in the back of my mind. So when the ending came I couldn’t even pretend to be surprized with the big reveal. There were still certain parts that I couldn’t predict, but it was a little disappointing that part of the ending was so easy to predict. Focus was still good despite the lack of subtlety but I’m still torn on if it’s good enough to see in theaters. I’m going to leave this one up to you. If this movie has already caught your eye or if my stellar and nearly flawless review has changed your mind about it, then go see it in theaters. If you’re like me and thought it looked kind of interesting but didn’t want to go out of your way to see it, then wait. Buy it when it comes out or even wait for a streaming service to pick it up.
Focus is worth a watch. It’s up to you if it’s going to be on the silver screen or not.
Focus gets a 7.5 out of 11.