Focus uses cheap tricks to steal moviegoers' money

“You get their focus, then you can take whatever you want.” This is how Nicky explains to Jess the art of lifting a mark’s valuables. It also describes Hollywood’s cinematic strategy: Tantalize with skin and salty language, and the public will hand over its wallet. Focus (rated R for language, some sexual content, and brief violence) offers the eye and ear candy many moviegoers gobble up, but the director fails to follow his main character’s advice on what starts out as a smart story.

Nicky (Will Smith) is the son of a con man. He heads a sizable team of pickpockets that can strip a crowd of New Orleans tourists clean like a swarm of locusts defoliating a field. He takes Jess (Margot Robbie) into his gang and shows her the tricks of the trade. The team’s synergy is fluid and impressive. (And educational. I now feel qualified to establish my own criminal enterprise.)

After a big payday involving the clever and intricate con of a wealthy businessman (B.D. Wong, in too brief a role), Nicky cuts Jess out of his life, nipping their relationship in the bud. The story fast-forwards three years but reverts to standard caper fare. Nicky is now mixed up in a con involving two competing Formula 1 race car team owners. Jess reappears, but the magic of the movie’s first half hour has worn off. Focus falls back on predictable plot twists and abandons slick swindles for more earthy entertainment.

Still, Focus was No. 1 at the box office on its opening day, proof that many moviegoers are willing to be a mark for Hollywood’s own team of pickpockets.