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Confidence - 4/25/03 - R - 98m
Ed
Burns - Jake Vig
Rachel Weisz - Lily
Dustin Hoffman - The King
Director: James Foley
Written by: Doug Jung
LYN
Well first things first…"The Sting" it ain't.
There is a standard or bar set by movies within the same genre or plotline
rules that all future films in the same respect sort of aspire to be that
before mentioned benchmark that all others will try to copy. One of my
favorite movies involving a scam, con artist or grifter, was of course
"The Sting". Probably because it was so involved, complicated,
and so many acts had to be performed in such a perfect manner that they
left no room for any error, in essence, flawless. All this and leave the
audience entertained and unable to figure out until the very end what
was going on and who was going to double-cross who.
The reason I mention all of this was that "Confidence" had all
or most of the key ingredients, but unfortunately fails to connect them
together. Also, within the first 20 seconds of the film, they had already
revealed too much information. Although the plot was overwhelmingly involved,
it lacked the timing needed to carry out its task. It was more of my thought
that the Writer "Don Jung" was busier making the storyline as
confusing as possible to hide the holes in the execution of the confidence
scheme. This is what makes "Confidence" fall short, which is
very sad because it had so much more to offer.
Case in point, the acting. The two most notable were as follows: "Ed
Burns" was the perfect choice for grifter "Jake Vig" with
his cold steely demeanor, and emotionless doll eyes that any poker player
would kill to have, he played this part to a tee. Bravo. And of course
"Dustin Hoffman", for the lack of better description was seamless
as "The King". With the perfect amount of comedy and disturbing
unstableness, he played the minor league crime boss with ADHT as if it
were just as easy as putting on a pair of favorite old jeans. Bravo.
Now with this said, there in lies the rub…a wonderful cast of characters
and fine acting everywhere you turn, but then a less than adequate storyline.
Hmmm…I'd see it just for the acting, but not reason enough to give
it a full "Green".
Lyn