| Focus | |
| Producer: | Denise Di Novi |
| Music: | Nick Urata |
| Cinematography: | Xavier Pérez Grobet |
| Editing: | Jan Kovac[1] |
| Distributor: | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Runtime: | 105 minutes[2] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $50.1–65 million[3] [4] |
| Gross: | $158.8 million |
Focus is a 2015 American crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie. The plot follows a career con artist who takes an aspiring femme fatale under his wing.
The film was released on February 27, 2015. It received mixed reviews from critics but was a success at the box office, grossing $158 million against its $50 million budget.
Seasoned con-man Nicky Spurgeon meets inexperienced grifter Jess Barrett, who tries to seduce and con him, with a fake jealous husband. When they fail, Nicky advises them never to lose focus when faced with unexpected situations. He follows Jess, convincing her to have drinks. Nicky tells her how his father Bucky shot his grandfather in a stand-off, explaining the "Toledo Panic Button" tactic, in which you shoot your partner to show your loyalty.
Jess follows Nicky to New Orleans, successfully persuading him to take her under his wing, where she also meets Nicky's crew, including Farhad and Horst. Picking a few pockets as a test, Nicky and Jess develop a romantic relationship, upsetting Nicky, whose father taught him to never become emotionally involved with colleagues. At the Super Bowl, Nicky gets into a round of increasingly extravagant bets with gambler Liyuan Tse, eventually losing all of the money the crew has earned.
To win it back, Nicky asks Tse to pick any player on or off the field and has Jess guess the number picked. Distraught, Jess scans the field, sees Farhad wearing jersey number 55, and realizes it is another con. They take Tse for millions. Nicky later explains how Tse had been programmed to pick 55 from his arrival, with subtle, subliminal prompts throughout his day. This victory leaves Tse impressed, who even graciously gives all the money back to Nicky.
Nicky leaves Jess with her cut, and instructs the driver to take her to the airport. She cries as her limo drives off, as he climbs into another waiting car.
Three years later, Nicky goes to Buenos Aires to work for billionaire motorsport team owner Rafael Garriga. As Garriga wants to beat Australian businessman McEwen's team in the championship, Nicky will pretend to be Garriga's team's disgruntled technician who is willing to sell his custom fuel using algorithm EXR. Instead, he will sell McEwen a bogus version which will actually slow their car down. At a pre-race party, Nicky runs into Jess, who is now with Garriga. After heavy drinking upon seeing Jess, Nicky has a convincing public fight with Garriga and after being thrown out, is recruited by McEwen to provide the component.
Nicky begins pursuing Jess again, and they eventually rekindle their relationship. The head of Garriga's security entourage, Owens, is suspicious and narrowly misses catching them together. Nicky not only delivers the real component to McEwen for three million euros but also sells it to the other teams for similar amounts. Before Nicky and Jess can return to the US together, they are caught by Garriga's men. Jess is bound and her mouth is taped shut whilst Nicky is beaten. Garriga is convinced that she helped Nicky gain access to EXR, so begins to suffocate her. To save Jess, Nicky explains that he tricked her into believing he still had feelings for her and the necklace he had given her secretly recorded Garriga's password and login information. Jess was conned and knew nothing about it. However, she then reveals she was only trying to seduce Garriga to steal his valuable watch but had not actually got close enough to Garriga for Nicky's story to be true.
Nicky then promises to come clean to spare Jess's life, but Owens shoots him in the chest, causing a horrified Garriga to leave. Owens then reveals himself to be Bucky, and assures Jess that he avoided any major arteries by employing the "Toledo Panic Button". He then tapes up Nicky's wounds and draws excess blood from his lung with a syringe so he can breathe. They flee the garage in Garriga's vehicle.
Bucky drives Nicky and Jess to the hospital to treat Nicky's punctured lung. Before he drops them off, he reveals why he has left him on the streets: during a poker deal in Boston, he had a gun pulled on him, and all he could think about then was Nicky. He then walked away and never looked back.
After emphasizing that love will get one killed in the game, Bucky departs with all the money as a reminder of the consequences of losing focus. After he leaves, Nicky notices that Jess snatched Garriga's $200,000 watch, and a smiling Nicky and Jess walk towards the hospital entrance together.
Apollo Robbins served as a consultant, conceiving and choreographing original sleight-of-hand maneuvers. Directors Ficarra and Requa stated, "Apollo is the foremost expert in his field and is an inspiration to us."
The directing duo and production designer Beth Mickle made a scouting trip to Buenos Aires in June and a second trip with producers Denise Di Novi and Mark Scoon, in which they finally settled to shoot in the neighborhoods of San Telmo, Puerto Madero, Barracas, Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo, as well as Ezeiza Airport and a few hotels.[5]
Neil Smith spoke at the Digital Cinema Society forum dropping several hints as to the identity of a film being edited in Final Cut Pro X in a December 2013 presentation. This would make Focus the largest production yet completed in Apple's editing program.
Principal photography began on September 14, 2013, in New Orleans, and moved over to Buenos Aires on November 19, 2013, for three weeks. The last day of shooting in Argentina was on December 10.[6] Filming wrapped in New York City on December 17, 2013.[7]
The film was released in 2015 in the US and Germany.[8] On January 29, 2015, Warner Bros. and IMAX Corporation announced that they would digitally re-master the film into the immersive IMAX DMR format, also for release on the same date.[9]
Focus was released on DVD and Blu-ray/DVD combo pack on June 2, 2015.[10] [11]
Focus grossed $53.9 million in North America and $104.9 million in other territories for a total gross of $158.8 million, against a production budget of $50.1 million.[12]
The film grossed $6.4 million in its opening day, $7.6 million on its second day and $4.6 million on its third day, totaling $18.7 million in its opening weekend, while playing in 3,323 theaters (a $5,623 per-theatre average), finishing first place at the box office.[13] The film was also released in the theatres of 39 markets of other territories in same weekend of its North America release, and grossed an estimated $12.2 million. Its biggest territories were the United Kingdom ($13 million), Russia ($3.1 million) and Netherlands ($1,765,832).[14] [15]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 56%, based on 228 reviews, with an average rating of 5.80/10. The site's consensus reads, "Focus may have a few too many twists and turns, but it nearly skates by on its glamorous setting and the charm of its stars."[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[18]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "sheer, escapist entertainment from start to finish."[19] The Free Press Journal called the film "smart, slick, but shallow".[20] Nick De Semlyen of Empire wrote: "This is maximum-gloss entertainment with its fair share of tricksy rug-pulls. But, like one of the neon-coloured cocktails Smith drinks in it, it’s more of an immediate rush than something you’ll remember in a year."[21]
The soundtrack album was released on February 24, 2015, by WaterTower Music.[22]