February 27, 2015 -- Focus is a movie about con men, pickpockets, card sharks and other shady types who liberate people from their valuables in various sneaky ways. The most famous movie of this sort, of course, was “The Sting.” This movie isn't nearly that good, nor is it as good as “Confidence” (2003) or “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967) but it is a fun diversion.

The smooth, charming Will Smith (“Independence Day”) stars in this film and he is perfectly suited to this role. Smith stars as Nicky, a highly experienced and skilled con man who meets a woman, Jess (played by Margot Robbie of “The Wolf of Wall Street”) who tries unsuccessfully to pull a con job on him. She is a novice, but she shows promise, so Nicky teaches her the basics of how to be a pickpocket, and they part ways, only to be reunited again and again in the con business.

The second time they meet finds Jess evolved into a master pickpocket. She joins Nicky at New Orleans on Super Bowl weekend with a large team of con men and pickpockets who steal wallets, watches, purses, credit card numbers and codes. They set up card readers in ATM machines and use portable card readers to steal credit card codes, then put the credit cards back in people's purses and wallets so they don't know their credit card information is stolen until it is too late.

This large con, pickpocket and identity theft operation is a wonder to behold, and it is scary as well. It is topped off with a big con job at the Super Bowl in which Jess is an unwitting participant. After the con, she is coldly given her cut and dismissed from the team, only to meet up with Nicky again years later in Rio, where both of them are working around a rich owner of a Grand Prix racing team.

The owner of the team, Garriga (Rodrigo Santoro of “300”) has hired Nicky to pull a con job on the owner of a rival race car team. The idea is convince the other team owner that Nicky is a disgruntled employee of Garriga's who is willing to sell him a secret formula that makes cars go faster. The formula is a fake. It only appears to work.

When Nicky sees Jess hanging around with Garriga, he falls for her this time, and that complicates things for him and Jess both. This last con job is way more complicated than Garriga thinks it is. It is so complicated that it shouldn't work because too many things can go wrong. Inevitably, something does go wrong and lives are in the balance.

This is a fun movie with a lot of twists and turns in the plot. There are some nice set-ups and the story is clever in places, but not quite clever enough. It strains credulity past the breaking point, and there are a few too many coincidences. It also appears some important story threads were cut out for some reason. The acting is solid, the pace is fast and the production values are adequate. If this movie does well it could help revive Will Smith's career, which took a hit because of “After Earth,” (2013). That film was major bomb, critically and financially.

I like Will Smith and wish him well in his career. Margot Robbie is also impressive in this film, and it was good to see Gerald McRaney (“Red Tails”) again in a high-profile role. Adrian Martinez (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”) plays the sidekick character again in this movie, popping up in some very unexpected places. This film rates a C+.

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