Focus Review Roundup: What Critics Really Think of Will Smith's New Con Artist Movie

Many reviewers are not feeling the flick, but do they downright hate it?

By Brett Malec Feb 26, 2015 7:29 PMTags
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Focus is here!

In the new flick, a con artist (Will Smith) meets his match in a gorgeous fellow con artist played by Margot Robbie. As Smith takes Robbie's character under his wing, they begin to fall for each other romantically. Then, years after their first meeting, the duo reconnect as Smith tries to pull off one of his biggest heists ever.

So what do critics think about the new film? Read on for our Focus review roundup...

• The A.V. Club gave the film a C+ rating. "On the most basic level, the con-artist romance Focus is a Cary Grant movie in the North By Northwest or Charade mold. There's a charismatic 6-foot-2 star who's funny when he plays drunk (Will Smith), a love interest who's almost young enough to be his daughter (Margot Robbie), a byzantine plot that's never fully clarified, some travel-show-ready locations, and even a MacGuffin, which comes in the shape of a formula that makes race cars go ever so slightly faster," writes Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. "The thing about Cary Grant movies, though, is that they're about 20 minutes longer than they would be if they starred anyone else, which isn't a dig against them, but a reminder that charisma needs its own space, at least if it's expected to carry a movie along from one scene to another. Focus' problem isn't that its stars lack charm, but that it's squeezed into tight spaces between protracted explanations of setups, backstories, and twists—a poor example of the every-shot-must-convey-narrative-information school of filmmaking."

• New York Daily News' Joe Neumaier did not find Smith's performance charming a la Cary Grant. "Will Smith may have run through every trick in his bag," he writes in a review headlined "Will Smith is at his worst in this caper movie." "In Focus, the one-time fresh prince and former box-office champ looks tired, bored and, even worse, uninspired. He dials down his famous charm so much in this lame caper, the biggest scam perpetrated is the one that makes audiences think they'll have a good time."

• THR agrees with Neumaier. "The con is on the audience," writes Todd McCarthy. Despite his initial negativity, McCarthy alter adds, "Will Smith and the film's sexy vibe will likely spur moderately good initial box office, although the vague, undescriptive title won't help...Focus is nothing if not sleek and luxurious; it's a fantasy portrait of the upside of a sort of criminality that's portrayed as relatively benign, that is, without victims of physical harm. The Buenos Aires locations of the second half provide backdrops that are welcome in their relative unfamiliarity in Hollywood films."

• Forbes' Scott Mendelson had almost nothing bad to say about the film, which he praises as "razor sharp." "Will Smith and Margot Robbie anchor this surprisingly terrific little crime caper, reminding us why Will Smith is still a movie star and establishing Robbie as a star-in-waiting," he writes.

• Michael Phillips' review is mixed at best. "Screen chemistry between two individuals isn't really a pass/fail proposition. There are degrees involved. But let's pretend otherwise and say yes, Smith and Robbie pass, barely, with less than flying colors and in a pretty dull movie," writes the Chicago Tribune critic. "Modeling sunglasses in close-up or murmuring double-entendres in low light, usually in single shots that prevent any real sense of interplay, Smith and Robbie are skillful enough on their own to lift a laborious con artist story to a simpler plateau, where we can focus on the unimportant stuff (eyewear, attractive extras floating by) and pretend to be fully invested in the outcome."