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Trust Is In The Details
by Jonathan W. Hickman
Jake Vig (Ed Burns) has a talent, and he was born with it--a believable confidence that just may infect you and take your trust in the process.
James Foley’s extremely entertaining new film Confidence benefits greatly from a cast of cocksure players that all exude the perfect amount of audacity. Unfortunately, the slick story never quite grabs the audience’s trust. Unlike the characters these gifted actors inhabit, the story seems to telegraph its twists and turns so much that all that’s left is clever dialogue coming from great-looking people, in great-looking clothes, in great noirish looking places. Heck, even an attempt to make Andy Garcia look portly is ineffective. And on one important level the shear attractiveness is enough--it’s grand entertainment the way the new Ocean’s 11 worked.
Jake (Ed Burns) is the youthful but seasoned leader of a team of con-artists whose latest successful sting may come back to sting them. Jake’s team is composed of a eclectic group of cool guys joined by the quintessential skirt played by Rachel Weisz who made a pretty impression in About A Boy last year. This crew seems to be all style and no substance; they look the part but don’t leave one with the impression that they could accomplish much. Caper movies depend heavily on the set-up, the careful planning of the job and the details, yes, all the glorious details that dazzle and confuse and seem somehow credible.
Anyway, in their latest job, the crew may have unwittingly taken the money of a seedy and powerful criminal suitably named King played by a cool and youthful looking Dustin Hoffman. Director Foley has shot Hoffman in a way that makes him look taller especially around Ed Burns whose height, muscles and haircut rival Ben Affleck’s Daredevil persona. Jake decides to take the bull by the horns and work something out with King directly. Jake’s idea of a work out, however, does not include returning all of the money. The speed popping King, who surrounds himself with flesh and everything lowbrow Vegas-style, is impressed by Jake’s moxie and decides to enlist Jake and his crew to pull a very big job.
The big job is a sting of a mob banker played convincingly by Robert Forster who is given very little to do but who is a welcomed addition to this attractive and talented cast.
But earlier, I mentioned that caper movies depend on the details. A couple of years ago, I liked David Mamet’s Heist, but the middle was more fun and better than its shoot ‘em up ending. Mamet’s House of Games was able to get even better in its concluding sequences. The ending of The Grifters sticks in my head to this day. And who could ever forget Michael Mann’s Thief, the ultimate Jimmy Caan video risk. Confidence does not rise above light entertainment. The payoff is not shocking only pleasant. Pleasant is Sunday afternoon good, forgotten on the ride home.
I remember the ending of Ocean’s 11, the Soderbergh version, where Danny Ocean (George Clooney) gets out of jail. He is greeted by his partner in crime Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) and his often estranged wife, Tess Ocean (Julia Roberts). The three drive off followed by a couple of goons, Hell bent on seeing to it that they never enjoy the fruits of their criminal labor. Although the job pulled earlier in the film was successful netting a lot of dough, they really couldn’t enjoy the loot. I sensed tragedy, the tragic nature of the con-artist. In Confidence, people die, are murdered, guns are brandished, and there is a threat, but in order for it to be credible and engaging, there must be that touch of the tragic sadness behind the grifter. You see, the sadness is one detail that cannot be overlooked.
Jonathan W. Hickman, 2003
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