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CONFIDENCE Send This Review to a Friend
The art of fleecing a mark by operators indulging their hunger for money is manipulated cleverly in the appropriately titled "Confidence." We've been there before with the obligatory double-crossing and ruses that keep a viewer guessing. This time the charm of Ed Burns as a master manipulator and the creepy characterization by Dustin Hoffman as a nasty, vengeful mobster are the prime ingredients. Add a gang of colorful characters and attractive Rachel Weisz as the requisite woman in the pack and you have an idea of the fast-moving new film written by Doug Jung and directed by James Foley.
Burns, who exudes a certain amount of arrogant charm, plays Jake Vig, a smart-assed grifter who thinks he can con anyone. When he and his boys victimize a representative of mob boss Winston King, nicknamed "The King" (Hoffman), they are in trouble. Jake decides to face King, explain that he didn't know the victim was King's man and offer to make up for the stolen money by pulling off a big job. One of the film's best scenes is the maneuvering between Jake and King, with Hoffman expertly creating tension as King makes a gay pass at the resistant Jake as part of a power play. The scheme Burns concocts involves finding a vulnerable bank officer.
Burns enlists Lily (Weisz) after he discovers her brazenness at picking his pocket, and there's an amusing scene in which she proves in a jewelry store how effective she can be as a conning assistant. Another key character is Andy Garcia who turns up as an FBI agent who puts the heat on two crooked Los Angeles detectives, played by Donal Logue and Luis Guzman, accomplices of Jake. Other character actors include Paul Giamatti, Morris Chestnut and Brian Van Holt.
You'll catch on quickly that everything is not always what it seems, and the pleasure lies in trying to keep a step ahead of the manipulators and figure out which way the con is going to ultimately go. Some of the maneuvers can become tedious, but "Confidence" is mostly easy to watch, thanks to its colorful cast, lively scenes, subterfuge and an audience's own willingness to be a sucker ready to be fooled. A Lions Gate Films release.
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