Will Smith gives a big speech about “focus” that feels like they tacked it on after renaming the movie then never mentions it again in Focus, the story of a suspiciously well-off con man and his intern (Margot Robbie, last seen saddled with even worse material in The Wolf of Wall Street, born the same year The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air premiered). Is it zippy? Sure. Do they make a surprising amount of money reselling stolen watches in a world where people don’t wear watches anymore? You betcha. Do they fall in love? What are you, new? Smith has charisma to spare, still, as veteran flim-flammer Nicky and Robbie gamely keeps up as the smart, nimble Jess, the only woman in Focus with a speaking part. It’s one of those movies where everything turns out to be a con so you never have to think about which thing is a con, meaning you can sit back and enjoy an OK-enough comedy about a May-December relationship built on a foundation of gambling and thievery. Gerald McRaney is a delight.
