| Review |
Every once in a while someone makes a movie that tries to grab the audience with the same kind of sly, stylish chicanery that made "The Sting" such a smash back in 1973. "Confidence" is the latest attempt, and while it's hardly on the same level, it's mildly enjoyable. It differs from George Roy Hill's picture in that it's set in the present, and affects a gritty contemporary atmosphere rather than the slickly nostalgic one of the earlier film. But the basic element of the script by first-timer Doug Jung is nearly identical: a team of grifters, headed by an ultra-slick operator with a gorgeous partner, get involved with a big-time crime boss. In the earlier flick, of course, the duo was old pro Paul Newman and rookie Robert Redford, and their mark was the menacing Robert Shaw. Here the central pairing has a more obviously romantic cast: Jake Vig (Ed Burns), the efficient professional, takes on Lily (Rachel Weisz), a svelte pickpocket, for a new job. The bigwig this time around is the reverse of the physically imposing Shaw: he's King (Dustin Hoffman), a ferret-like guy whose threats are more verbal. There's a switch in relationships, too, though it's hardly a new one. Jake's most recent scam fleeced one of King's bagmen, and in order to pay the boss back (and save the hides of himself and his crew), Vig plans a score against a target of King's own choice--a mob-connected banker named Morgan Price (Robert Forster). Unfortunately, the elaborate scheme Jake devises is threatened by the arrival of his old nemesis, a grubby FBI agent named Gunther (Andy Garcia), who enlists two of Vig's former associates--corrupt cops Whitworth (Donal Logue) and Manzano (Luis Guzman)--in his effort to catch the grifter in the act. There are other characters in the mix: Jake's two long-time collaborators Gordo (Paul Giamatti) and Miles (Brian Van Holt); King's enforcer Lupus (Frankie G), whom he forces Vig to take on; Price's lieutenant Travis (Morris Chestnut). With so many pieces on the board, there's ample opportunity for crosses--single, double and triple--and while it wouldn't be fair to divulge the twists and turns of the plot (after all, the object is the misdirection of the viewer as well as some characters), the opening, which shows Jake bloodied and beaten in an L.A. street and beginning his voiceover narrative of what brought him to such a pass, indicates that things don't proceed smoothly.
The scenario that Jung has contrived for "Confidence" is certainly convoluted, and he provides some colorful dialogue that might have been taken from David Mamet's playbook. The script also manages to keep things reasonably clear, even if toward the end the some of the complications don't have the perfect fit, the air of necessity, that one wants in this sort of cinematic Rubik's cube. Director James Foley (who coincidentally helmed the screen version of Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross") expertly seizes on the opportunities the screenplay affords, although he occasionally employs devices--direct address to the audience, flashy flashbacks--that intrude. He's assembled a cast that likewise takes advantage of the possibilities. Burns is hardly in Newman's class, but even if one can imagine others giving Vig greater charisma, he at least seems more confident than he's been on screen in the past; and Weisz makes a sultry partner for him. The supporting players steal the show, though. Hoffman is obviously having a fine time playing a sleazeball, and if his performance is more a stunt than anything else (and at that well below his work in "Wag the Dog"), it's still great fun. So is Garcia's: almost unrecognizable at first with a scraggly beard and Columbo-style attire, he shuffles his way through the proceedings almost sending off clouds of grime as he goes. Giamatti spikes the action up consistently with his manic delivery--mannered to be sure, but undeniably effective in such material--and Logue and Guzman do a fine two-stooges routine as the bumbling cops. Forster, unfortunately, is given little to do as the sleazy banker. Technically the picture is adequate but lacks the visual panache that might have made it more beguiling.
"Confidence" doesn't live up to the best examples of the con-game genre, seeming at once too derivative and not perfectly polished; but thanks to the efforts of the colorful cast, the sleight-of-hand is sufficiently dexterous to make it a pleasant, if empty, diversion. |
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