Margot Robbie Movie Focus

Of Con Men And Dames: How Margot Robbie Gets Robbed In 'Focus' Will Smith plays a con man in Focus, but unfortunately, the woman playing opposite him has depressingly little to do.

, starring Will Smith as a smoothie con man with a heart of gold, is trying very hard to be a kind of film that only works when it seems effortless. Specifically, it seems to be engineered to be a close relative of Steven Soderbergh's 2001

, in which beautiful people participate in tricky schemes dressed in cool clothes in gorgeous surroundings, surprising even the audience with their cleverness.

Perfect Paradise. — Filmgifs: Margot Robbie Focus (2015)

Smith plays Nicky, who we meet as he's scamming his way into a New York restaurant without a reservation. There, he meets Jess (Margot Robbie), a beautiful blonde (hair color being normally irrelevant to character except in situations in which beautiful blondes are blondes because the movie seems to have conceived them as types more than humans). He and Jess have an initial Meet Cute, then there's a turn, then there's another turn, and ... well, he winds up teaching her to be a better pickpocket, is the long and short of it, and they become, for a while, partners. And ... partners.

The trick to a good con man in the movies — particularly an impeccably dressed, effortlessly charming one — is weaknesses. What makes George Clooney as Danny Ocean so wonderful

Is, in part, that he seems so close to washed up and he seems to need this big score so badly. His friend Rusty (Brad Pitt) is hardly using his talents to the best of his ability: we find him, in an inspired sequence, teaching poker to a bunch of spoiled-brat actors, taking their money because they're stupid and it's easy. These guys are gorgeous and charming, but they are, and the movie admits that they are, about two degrees of rotation from being straight-up pitiable.

Margot Robbie Style, Costume Designer Dayna Pink Of Focus Film

Nicky, on the other hand, seems to have the world on a string. He gets the better of Jess, easily, and then schools her — and he's on top of everything, always. She's always out of the loop, she's always a petty pickpocket with no greater skills than that, and she never knows what Nicky has planned. In short, we are told over and over (and over) in lots of ways that he's much smarter than she is, and she'll never be able to keep up, which makes her pretty uninteresting to follow.

What would have really helped the movie would have been a lot more confidence in Jess to be not just pretty and a pickpocket but a match for Nicky. Romantic comedies — which is part of what they want this movie to be — rely on people who are reasonably evenly matched. Smith is much older than Robbie; it would reduce the distraction of that fact if it didn't seem like she was gazing upon him over and over again, purely in awe of everything he was doing. If she seemed at any time to have the spunk and backbone to actually participate in the world Nicky lives in as anything other than an accessory, she would have been a lot more compelling.

[As a side note, this certainly is not the only problem with the movie. It also falls massively short of the visual style it's going for. Its approach to New York seems derivative of

Margot Robbie Movie Checklist Quiz

Movie about Vegas (weird but true), and I was surprised to find myself staring at a snowscape where they chose to shoot a pickpocket training sequence, thinking, That could have been done literally anywhere, and it's just not a very attractive shot. I assume it was chosen because the white background helps the pickpocket moves stand out, but it just looks awkward.]

Robbie is coolly gorgeous in this film; she can do the work that this movie needs, if only they'd given it to her. In the brief interludes in which she seems to have her feet under her, she's charming and funny, and every time she starts to stick up for herself, the movie starts to get air under it. But always, always, she's undercut by the discovery that she has no idea what's going on. Dumb old Jess, the poor dumb pickpocket who ought to just do as she's told, lest she get herself in trouble.

Is that it gets around this problem by not trying to make Julia Roberts part of the gang. She doesn't know what's going on — and her

First Look: Will Smith, Margot Robbie Co Star In Con Artist Story 'focus' (trailer)

Not to know is justified by her bad experiences loving a con man, not by her inability to comprehend — but they don't pretend she does. They don't prop her up within the group and then treat her like a paper doll, which is the sad fate that befalls Robbie's Jess. (It also features cons that are much more interesting than anything Nicky does. One of his major moves, once he explains it to Jess later, turns out to somehow be both farfetched and dull.)

I found myself waiting and waiting for a victory for Jess. Spoiler alert: it never came. I wanted her to show her mettle, to turn out to be smarter than Nicky (who consistently condescends to her) gives her credit for, and to be the best kind of dame in a fizzy romantic caper movie — the equal partner who may not look like one on the surface and who lives to be underestimated and then make you pay for it.

Is that a con man with no vulnerabilities (childhood sadness doesn't actually count) is just a predator, if you think about it. A con man with vulnerabilities is a predator too, but in the same way you can feel for Hans Gruber in

Hottie Margot Robbie Sizzles In New Sassy Con Man Flick, Focus

In part because he's constantly having to troubleshoot, a con man who is outfoxed from time to time, or who's clinging to his last shot at beating the house, is massively more interesting than one who isn't. A good con artist can't win 'em all.Auf wirklich gar keinen Fall wollte Will Smith sich in Hollywood, Kalifornien, aufhalten, während die ersten Besucherzahlen zu seinem neuen Film Focus eintrafen. So erzählte er es dem Magazin Variety. Denn diese ersten Zahlen sagen meist schon alles über das weitere kommerzielle Schicksal eines Films. Und Will Smith, der ehemalige Fresh Prince, der ehemalige Man in Black, der ehemalige Bad Boy ist zwar ein wildes, überdrehtes Jahrzehnt lang ein Glückskind des Boxoffice gewesen. Aber die Freude auf den Anruf mit den ersten Zahlen ist ihm längst vergangen, seit die Liste seiner Totalausfälle immer länger wurde.

Smith hat in den vergangenen zehn Jahren ein paar wirklich saublöde Filme gedreht, in denen er auch noch unbedingt seine schauspielerisch mäßig talentierten Söhne unterbringen musste. Komödien, die nicht lustig waren, Dramen, die unfreiwillig komisch wurden. Und zuletzt noch ein Science-Fiction-Dingsbums namens After Earth, das dem Sony-Studio eine ganze Jahresbilanz versaute.

Nun also Focus und die Frage: Kann Will Smith, der mit seinen 46 Jahren deutlich zu alt für den Fresh Prince und deutlich zu jung für die Rente ist, sich noch einmal neu erfinden? Ohne die alte Gaudi-Rap-Nummer aus den Neunzigern, ohne seine Söhne, ohne falsches Pathos? Die Antwort lautet, im Sprachduktus seiner neuen Rolle, des Edelgauners Nicky: Yep.

Margot Robbie Focus Hi Res Stock Photography And Images

Nicky reist durch die Welt, von Großevent zu Großevent, und zieht den Leuten ihr Geld, ihren Schmuck, ihre Kreditkarten aus der Tasche. Zu Beginn des Films ist er mit seinem Diebesteam beim Super Bowl in New Orleans im Großeinsatz. Während die Kollegen draußen an der Würstchenbude die Fans ausnehmen, konzentriert Nicky sich drinnen, in der sterilen Welt der VIP-Lounges, auf die großen Fische.

Der Trick ist immer derselbe: A game of focus, sagt er, eine Frage des Blickfelds: Tippst du jemandem auf die linke Schulter, wird er für eine Sekunde nicht darauf achten, was du an seiner rechten Hosentasche machst. Übertragen auf noch frechere, größere Ablenkungsmanöver lassen sich so problemlos Millionen einsacken. Nicky macht es bei einem irren Wettspiel mit einem reichen Asiaten vor.

Nur: glücklich ist er nicht. Nach außen gibt er in schicken In-Restaurants und überverglasten Edel-Bars den lustigen, charmanten Kerl - aber eigentlich hat er längst die Freude am Leben verloren. Der Adrenalin-Kick, den sein Job mit sich bringt, wird immer kleiner und kürzer. Richtig anvertrauen will er sich in seiner Melancholie niemandem, er kann nicht einmal mehr einen Flirt richtig genießen - überhaupt, mit den Mädchen hat er abgeschlossen. Die perfekte Rolle für Will Smith also, der Nicky famos melancholisch als gequälten Sonnyboy spielt, in dessen Scherzkeksdasein sich eine unheimliche Müdigkeit mischt. Die Augen leuchten nicht, wenn er lacht, die Mundwinkel bekommt er höchstens auf halbmast.

First Images Of Margot Robbie And Will Smith In 'focus' Released

Auftritt Jess, ein gefährlich schönes Mädchen, das beim Klaumeister in die Lehre gehen will. Jess-Darstellerin Margot Robbie, die ihren großen Durchbruch in The Wolf of Wall Street hatte, schafft es allein mit ihrer rauchigen Stimme, sich einem Mann gleichzeitig als Versprechen und als Fluch anzukündigen.

Also wird die Gaunerfarce zur Beziehungsfarce, denn wenn zwei Trickbetrüger sich verlieben, geht das nur mit vielen Tricksereien, die zu jeder Menge emotionaler Kollateralschäden führen. Dass dieser nicht gerade neue dramaturgische Versuchsaufbau nicht zur x-Mal gesehenen Nummernrevue verkommt, liegt am Focus-Regieduo Glenn