AFP /Getty Images/Kevin Winter

The latest Hollywood thriller Focus, featuring Will Smith and Margot Robbie, is a hybrid of love and action offering unexpected plot twists from the beginning.

Smith plays Nicky, a high-class grifter who falls in love with Jess, played by Robbie, an amateur in the world of deceit.

The movie starts with the encounter of these two characters. Jess, who is clueless about Nicky'€™s reputation, tries to con Nicky but ends up being fooled by his mastery in the fraud business.

Amazed by Nicky'€™s ability, Jess begs to be his follower. After passing a test, Jess is allowed to join Nicky'€™s group, which conducts organized operations stealing and pickpocketing from rich people during big sporting events.

The conflict starts when Nicky has some feelings for Jess. Refusing to succumb to his own emotions, Nicky decides to ditch Jess after scoring millions of dollars in a gambling fraud.

Three years later, the two bump into each other again in Buenos Aires, Argentina, while involved in different operations targeting a billionaire race-car owner, Garriga, played by Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro. The flame still exists but the two try to ignore it as they do not want to risk their lives and endanger the operations. They need to choose either love or the job.

Bringing a theme about fraud, plot-wise, the movie itself is full of deceit, leaving audiences entirely clueless about the plots and the ending. The script offers surprises from scene one.

One good scene occurs when Nicky scams a world-class gambler, involving Jess without her knowing. It is a neat and organized fraud that makes the audiences gasp in their seats in the end. Overall, the audience becomes the happy victim of Nicky'€™s and Jess'€™ play in the film.

Unfortunately, it is the romance that drags the movie down. Love scenes have been put here and there by joint directors Glen Ficarra and John Requa, sometimes in inappropriate places. The love affair between the two main characters ironically makes the movie unfocused. Is it an action movie with a love story or a romance flick with a little bit of action? Perhaps it is both. Well, why make one, if you can do both? That may have been in the directors'€™ minds when writing the script.

The directors, who are also known for romantic comedies like I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) and Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), have also put comedy into the script and it is quite entertaining in some parts of the movie.

For those expecting Smith'€™s comeback as a hero in an adrenaline-pumping action movie full of blood and guns shooting and car chase scenes, they will be disappointed. For an action movie, this film does not give much. In fact, there is only one scene involving guns during the entire movie.

Yet, Smith nailed it again, delivering high-quality acting in another action movie. After Bad Boys and the Men in Black series, his acting as Nicky deserves praise. Nicky is a character full of contrast, tough but gentle in the heart, and Smith manages to play this character flawlessly.

Meanwhile, Robbie, with her acting, shows that she can be the next big star. Her career on the Hollywood big screen may have just started after her performance in the award winning movie The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013, but her role in Focus shows that the actress has grown and her character as Jess is expected to bring her to something bigger.

Overall, the movie is worth watching if you enjoy being dragged into a plot that will leave you wondering what the ending will be like. Just prepare to be surprised.

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Focus

Directors: Glen Ficarra and John Requa

Producer: Denise Di Novi

Cinematography: Xavier Pérez Grobet

Cast: Will Smith, Margot Robbie,

Rodrigo Santoro

Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures

Run time: 104 minutes

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