Focus
Warner Bros. | Release Date: February 27, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 42 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
13
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 26, 2015
This is just sheer, escapist entertainment from start to finish. Read full review
80
TheWrapJames RocchiFeb 25, 2015
Like a perfect cocktail mixes the sour with the sweet and the bright with the boozy, Focus combines seamless, superbly-crafted filmmaking with the fizz and fun created by its leads. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMar 1, 2015
Focus begins so elegantly, wittily and quickly that it sets up expectations it can’t quite fulfill. Yet if not every coincidence can be explained, if not every improbability gets addressed, it’s a satisfying diversion in a winter which, as usual, has too few of them. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 26, 2015
Focus is uncommonly good for a February release (damning with faint praise?) but may not clear the bar of being worthy of a trip through snow and ice to reach the multiplex. Star power, actor chemistry, and caper movie twists make for a nice diversion… but not much more. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireFeb 26, 2015
Co-stars Will Smith and Margot Robbie remain consistently charismatic, even once the script for this heist caper collapses in a punishing pile of its own twists and double-crosses. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyFeb 25, 2015
What keeps the film humming along as smoothly as it does is the chemistry and charisma of its leads. Read full review
75
ObserverRex ReedFeb 25, 2015
It’s beautifully photographed and entertaining, with charming performances by Will Smith and newcomer Margot Robbie that tease and tantalize. You won’t be bored. Read full review
75
HitfixDrew McWeenyFeb 25, 2015
Ficarra and Requa are good at creating a sense of momentum in their films that carries you along from scene to scene, and a film like this depends largely on chemistry. Smith and Robbie have bundles of it, so there is an easy pleasure to watching them circle each other. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 24, 2015
In spite of its incessant piling on of double-crosses and triple dog dares, Focus is a pleasant change from Academy Award seriousness. It's reassuring to see Smith resurrect the charisma that After Earth stripped away, and nice to see Robbie do anything, anytime. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottFeb 26, 2015
The preposterousness of the story doesn’t seem like a rip-off, since the twists in the plot, for the most part, pay off nicely. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyFeb 26, 2015
The film is breezy from start to finish. Read full review
70
The DissolveScott TobiasFeb 26, 2015
Smith and Robbie have great chemistry together, and neither of them try too hard to complicate their fun, sexy partnership. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 25, 2015
While not quite the “art” it’s billed to be, if the perfect con is about diverting one’s focus, then this one keeps you distracted till the end. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonFeb 24, 2015
There's no honor among thieves, but there is dignity in Focus's ambition. And if the final film is more vodka ad than all-time classic, there's still no shame in pouring another cocktail and rewinding the tape. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 26, 2015
It never loses the dazzling surface polish, but without trying to dig deeper, the movie strings us along in the hopes of something more, not unlike one of the cons at its center. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianJeff BakerFeb 26, 2015
A genre movie like this one depends on pacing, and Focus hits at least three dead spots in the final act. Writer-directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra get so much right -- the sleek look, the plot set-ups, those montages in New Orleans, the supporting cast -- that it's painful when they can't maintain Focus and land it, before and after the big reveal. Read full review
67
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthFeb 26, 2015
Focus only works if the balance of ingredients is right, and from the cast, Ficarra and Requa get everything they need. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 26, 2015
Focus, which was co-written and directed by "Crazy Stupid Love" creators, Glen Ficarra and John Requa, is drunk on its perfume-ad cinematography and doesn’t know when to quit with its double-double cross plotting. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 26, 2015
There’s a terrific popcorn movie in Focus — a con-game romantic comedy that bubbles along on a playful high and that keeps the audience guessing in a state of delighted suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately, that movie is over after 40 minutes, and Focus still has another hour or so to go. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 26, 2015
I'm a sucker for caper movies in which impossibly clever con artists do impossibly dangerous things while looking impossibly gorgeous. I could feel Focus trying to be that caper. I'm not asking for nirvana, such as Hitchcock's "Notorious" or David O. Russell's "American Hustle," just a taste of sexy escapism. A taste is all you get in Focus, but it'll do till the whole enchilada comes along. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 26, 2015
Will Smith and Margot Robbie bring low-key erotic chemistry to an easy simmer in Focus, a smooth, sophisticated, often amusing little caper flick. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 26, 2015
Focus never quite comes into clear view. It's a muddled and twisting romantic caper that at times feels like Steven Soderbergh lite. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 26, 2015
After some overly talky revelations, the cornered writer/directors are forced to shatter their absurd shell game with a final act of violence that spoils the breezy, capering mood that prevailed for much of the movie. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie OgleFeb 26, 2015
Focus is a shiny, stylish shell game of a film that, much like its protagonists, relies on breezy chatter, a good sense of humor and a lot of misdirection to succeed. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 27, 2015
The pieces click together nicely in what ends up being an overall enjoyable package. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 26, 2015
Although it brings nothing new to the con-artist fold, or even anything thrilling, Focus is a seductive enough rehash that benefits from the built-in pleasures of the trade. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenFeb 25, 2015
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. Read full review
60
Total FilmAndrew LowryFeb 25, 2015
With the story fit to burst with an Ocean's trilogy worth of hustles, tricks and grifts (some of them smart, others groan-inducing), at least Robbie is the genuine article – sharing playful chemistry with Smith, but ultimately stealing the movie from right under his nose. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonFeb 23, 2015
The chassis may be slick and speedy, but under the hood Focus lives up to its Ford-produced namesake: sturdy but not exactly stimulating. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 27, 2015
This is the kind of movie where we’re not supposed to know at any time who is playing whom, but since the characterizations are glossy and paper-thin, it’s difficult to get worked up about who gets fleeced. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyFeb 25, 2015
On the most basic level, the con-artist romance Focus is a Cary Grant movie in the "North By Northwest" or "Charade" mold. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMar 4, 2015
This con artist caper from the writer/director duo behind "Bad Santa" and "I Love You Philip Morris" bears some superficial resemblance to the 2005 romantic comedy "Hitch." Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 27, 2015
The movie pulls off the worst kind of con: the one that disappoints. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 26, 2015
Screen chemistry between two individuals isn't really a pass/fail proposition. There are degrees involved. But let's pretend otherwise and say yes, Smith and Robbie pass, barely, with less than flying colors and in a pretty dull movie. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 25, 2015
This ultra-slick, fantasy-inducing visit to an international wonder world of wealth and deception plays more like an inventory of thieving and gambling techniques than a captivating diversion, even if it's hard not to be voyeuristically pulled in by some of its ruses. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 26, 2015
Smith makes Nicky too obviously insincere, with a grating, gloomy edge – which means he never suckers you in, and the fun dries up before it ever starts. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 26, 2015
Ms. Robbie, on the other hand, aces her role from the start; she’s got an unerring gift for romantic comedy. Still, the film itself comes to feel like a con, thanks to a script that’s too clever by two-thirds, and butterfingered in the ways of portraying love. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChris CabinFeb 26, 2015
The film turns out to instead be a strained trumpeting of the return of the proverbial king of the box office. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 24, 2015
A weak villain, a couple of eye-rollingly unlikely cons and dead stretches that make 105 minutes play like 145 and you've got Focus, the last dog of February, where comatose con job movies are released to the sounds of silence. Read full review
25
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 26, 2015
Preposterous, slipshod, unfunny and emotionally null. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 26, 2015
The emotional core of the movie, the relationship between Nicky and Jess, lacks impact, mostly because you can’t believe a word that they say, but also because Smith is not a strong leading man. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierFeb 26, 2015
Will Smith may have run through every trick in his bag. In Focus, the one-time fresh prince and former box-office champ looks tired, bored and, even worse, uninspired. Read full review
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