Focus sees Margot Robbie steal a movie from under the nose of too-cool-for-school Will Smith

REVIEW: The best way to extract maximum enjoyment from Focus is not to focus at all. Luckily, Margot Robbie is there to keep one and all distracted.

Focus (MA15+)

Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Adrian Martinez, Rodrigo Santoro, Gerald McRaney.

Rating : ***

A loving lesson in cunning conning

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The best way to extract maximum enjoyment from Focus is not to focus at all.

Do not look too closely or think too hard as this colourful cavalcade of swindles and stings passes by. Otherwise, the whole thing will shudder to a halt and then instantly fall to pieces.

Those pieces will look mighty familiar to anyone who’s seen an Ocean’s Eleven or any other commercial caper flick in the past decade.

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So in order to keep moving in the right direction and stay intact until it gets there, a movie like Focus needs a weapon of mass distraction to keep our minds blank and eyes wandering.

Enter Margot Robbie. Though this Australian-born rising star hasn’t been seen on the big screen since her breakthrough role in Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, she wastes no time in swiping Focus right out from under the nose of her leading man here, Will Smith.

Good screen chemistry ... Margot Robbie and Will Smith in Focus.

Robbie walks away with scene after scene in the movie, simply by being alive in the moment and alert to all possibilities.

In stark contrast, Smith gives very little of himself to his performance. This could be due to the deceptive tendencies of the character he is playing. Or it could well be he didn’t really want to make too much of an effort.

Screen stealer ... Margot Robbie in a scene from Focus.

Smith is Nicky, a too-cool-for-school con man who knows every trick in the book when it comes to emptying pockets, wallets and bank accounts.

Nicky is the head of a very well-organised gang who hit cities of their choosing in strategic formation. There are set routines that can be used for any situation. Everyone knows their role. Everyone gets their cut.

Slick plot ... Margot Robbie and Will Smith in Focus.

Robbie plays Jess, a small-time solo scammer who wants to join Team Nicky. After a rough start, she passes her audition and becomes an integral member of the operation.

Of course, the fact Jess is a stunning-looking practitioner of her craft is not lost on Nicky, who gives in to her wiles against his better judgment.

As breezily written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (the creative team behind the 2011 hit Crazy, Stupid, Love), Focus doesn’t get too heavy with the predictable romantic complications that ensue.

Though Robbie’s lively work does keep you interested in what will become of Jess and Nicky, the film is at its best when the light-fingered cons are happening in all their slickly synchronised glory.

*** for more reviews, news and updates, followLeigh PaatschonTwitter at @leighpaatschand onInstagram at leighpaatsch ***

Originally published as Focus sees Margot Robbie steal a movie from under the nose of too-cool-for-school Will Smith