Confidence (2003)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

In the opening scene of "Confidence", Edward Burns is lying dead in a back alley. He narrates the story as he lies on the pavement. But is he William Holden dead as in "Sunset Boulevard" or is he some other kind of dead? "Confidence" is the perfect title for a heist movie that heists large chunks of plot from "The Sting" without so much as a nod to the original creators. The problem with borrowing so much from a classic film is that it isn't much of a surprise once the audience realises where they have seen it all before. Unfortunately "Confidence" is so confident that it actually telegraphs the ending at the beginning.Edward Burns plays Jake Vig, grifter and conman. He and his team of grifter buddies work a scam on a mark who turns out to be working for a far more serious criminal, Winston King, played with acting chops in overdrive by Dustin Hoffman.When one of the team is killed, Burns and the guys realise that King is out for revenge. Jake decides to head off further payback by approaching King and making him a deal. Jake offers to pull off an even bigger scam that will net millions of dollars for both of them. However revenge for the death of his friend is also on the agenda for Jake.He even asks Winston King to bankroll the deal. Chutzpah and confidence are not only Jake's stock in trade but also his philosophy. "You're good," King says to Jake, "I can't even tell when you're lying." But it's not actually true, you can tell; Burns doesn't have a great range as an actor and the demeanour he adopts here is not a particularly likable one.The scam involves stealing a large sum of money from a former gangster, Morgan Price played by Robert Forster. The plan is to take the money during an exchange of funds with a small, offshore bank. It also involves bringing one of Price's executives into the scam. To achieve this, Burns approaches a prostitute, Lily, to be part of the team, and to seduce the executive.Lily is played by Rachel Weisz who adopts a hard-boiled persona and looks disconcertingly like a drag queen. Whatever the costume designers had in mind, her whole look would make a good subject for a fashion makeover by Trinny and Susannah on "What Not To Wear".Although "Confidence" does possess a certain slickness, the 'f word' is used to the point where it could be a record for any film. Why the filmmakers would sanction such repetition is mystifying, unless it indicates improvisation from the actors – unimaginative improvisation at that. It's just another creative miscalculation among many others in the film.Slick, shallow and far too self-conscious, "Confidence" isn't totally bad. It has enough energy to divert while it plays; it is only when it has finished that its most obvious quality comes into play – it is instantly forgettable.

I'm not even going to waste my time with this movie. I've just got a few things to ask the writer of the script. Hey, is this what you truly think of your audience? Are we crap in your world? Why not just spit on us? I work hard to pay good money ($1.25) to purchase this movie and this is what I get? You know, this goes to prove that if reality was half as bad as Hollywood depicts it, the evil in this world would be four times as bad. And, by the way, thinking twenty moves ahead in a chess game is absurd. Why not have a chihuahua jump off from the Empire State Building onto the Statue of Liberty? Now that would be believable for sure. Is the word stupid written onto my forehead or what? Please, get therapy soon. In the meantime, go find yourself a day job.

'Confidence' is an 'Oceans 11-type' Heist movie with its own unique personality. While he sticks to the genre formula, Director, James Foley, moves this film along at a steady, active pace and throws in enough twists and turns to keep us involved.Ironically, the master mind is a guy named Jake Vig (Ed Burns). Ironic because Mr. Vig (his last name meaning 'the take' or 'the amount charged by the bookie for services rendered') is a 'charming, virile fellow' (slang definition for 'jake') who wishes to accomplish his gigs with minimal actual violence. Unfortunately, the heist goes sideways when he and his crew find they have jacked a morally bankrupt criminal called 'King', who is not partial to letting things slide. In fact, with an act of very harsh measure, King makes it acutely clear what it is he requires to resolve the matter. Of course Jake refuses and the negotiations begin. This is where the twists and turns commence and the plot gets interesting.The caliber of talent in 'Confidence' is amazing. The crew, Brian Van Holt (Cougar Town), Paul Giamatti (Oscar nom.), Rachel Weisz (Oscar winner) and Ed Burns, come off as a tightly knit, intelligent bunch that are as close and trusting as family should be. Two cops on the take (Donal Logue and Luis Guzman) are hilarious hired help who hope to come out ahead. Of course, King (Dustin Hoffman, Oscar winner) enjoys his entourage of hired goons. Tiny Lister (as Harlan) intimidates politely, yet inimitably, as usual. A young, handsome Latino, Frankie G, displays his chameleon-like acting chops as Lupus, Harlan's understudy.There is a fair amount of subtle symbolism, in my opinion. Unfortunately, I've been told I have to be hit up long-side the head with it (symbolism) to see it. For example, the name Lupus seems apropos for this particular bodyguard's character, in terms of the word's medical implications. It would be a fun subject for discussion.The movie, 'Confidence', ends up being a Heist/Revenge movie with some great twists and a surprise ending. I'm not a great fan of Heist films, but I definitely enjoyed my 97 minutes. It was well paced, well acted, and well … I liked it.

If this film had been released 20 years ago, it might be seen as a startling, revealing look at the world of con artists. But it didn't come out 20 years ago, before David Mamet's House of Games and Stephen Frears' The Grifters were released; it came out in 2003, after con artists have become almost passé. It has been made with a lot of competent talent, but that cannot make up for a lazy script.Role call: Dustin Hoffman, Ed Burns, Andy Garcia, Rachel Weisz, Paul Giamatti, Donal Logue, Luis Guzman, and even Tommy "Tiny" Lister, who played the President in The Fifth Element. Burns leads a team of con artists who inadvertently rip off one of Hoffman's friends. Since Hoffman plays a crime lord here (with ADHD!), he has one of the team members killed. Burns doesn't give the money back - instead, he offers to work another con for Hoffman to pay back what he took. Nice enough setup… Performances all around are satisfactory. There's one scene where Hoffman has forgotten to take his ADHD pills that is, I'm certain, the reason he took the role. Lots of groping of women and slapping of faces. The movie is directed with energy and style by James Foley (director of Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross) and has an interesting green and purple lighting scheme.Unfortunately, it all comes down to the storytelling, and flashy as the camera moves may be, the script doesn't cut the mustard. It's full of interesting characters, but fails to be full of interesting scenes. The story of the con is about as predictable as they get. Many twists and several turns lie within the plot, fulfilling the need of the genre, but those twists and turns never create any real drama. Some movies are about more than their stories. This movie is about ONLY its story. Every word spoken is spoken to advance the plot, not to see the characters in any sort of three dimensional way or to create something out of their situation that we average schmoes can relate to. An annoying flashback/flash forward structure exists only to capture an audience's attention in those first precious moments of a film. It has no real purpose in the grand scheme - the movie is not more entertaining because of it, so it should have been abandoned. This is a sufficient con/caper movie, by which I mean it wraps up its story in a mostly sensible way with the proper amount of (false) tension. But that to me hardly seems sufficient.http://www.movieswithmark.com