11ENA READING LOG 3
Film Log
Title: Focus
Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
The 2015 film “Focus” directed by “Glenn Ficarra and John Requa” Staring “Will Smith and Margot Robbie” is about (Will Smith) a veteran con-artist who takes (Margot Robbie) a “newbie” who’s just coming into the scene of being a con under his wing and shows her his tips and tricks to his success of being a con. Which by the end have them falling for each other.
At the start of the film, Smith who plays “Nicky” but everyone calls him “Mello” and Robbie who plays “Jess” enjoy crackling chemistry as strangers trying to outsmart each other over wine and candlelight at an upscale Manhattan restaurant Jess is a small-time hustler trying to weasel her way into more profitable gigs whereas “Mello” has been at this game his whole life and has major operations down to a science. After this scene each of them realizes the truth about the other, and she starts to beg him to teach her everything he knows. This leads to a scene of them flirtatiously dancing around each other in the snowy Lincoln Centre, with Nicky preaching the importance of taking away a stranger’s focus to pick pocket every one of Jess belongings. Something I liked about this scene is that these two simply made a connection with each other by just doing what they love and speaking like real people whereas today modern society has everyone glued to their phones and not communicating verbally with each other. And if two complete Strangers in a film can do it why can’t we?
After the last scene it’s off to New Orleans, where Nicky reluctantly lets Jess join the massive team he’s assembled to snatch watches and wallets from the unsuspecting crowd who’ve gathered for a Major Professional Football Championship called the Superdome. Where later we see Mello and Jess who is blindsided to this risk all the money for some silly bet against a millionaire as they bet the whole crews cut on a “pick a player from any team wag...
