MINI MOVIE REVIEW:
"Confidence" is the second con artist movie of this month, after "The Good Thief," to rank near the low end of this stylized genre. While both movies are salvaged somewhat by the charismatic performances of the leads, they are also gravely hampered by Hollywood's emphasis of incessant noise and bright visuals to cover the lack of intelligent dialogue or character development. Once again, sadly, it's the writing.  

"Confidence" does move along smartly as the con proceeds to its conclusion. This is not a boring movie and you will be fascinated by some of the minor characters, especially the lovely Rachel Weisz as a stripper-grifter-pickpocket artist and the always wonderful Luis Guzmán ["Traffic,"(2001), "Punch-Drunk Love"(2002)] as another Los Angeles cop on the take. This movie is also salvaged by the great performance of Dustin Hoffman in a minor role as a pint sized crime boss named "The King."  

At the end of the day, however, "Confidence" is not worth the price of admission. I am beginning to believe that David Mamet may be the last American who is able to write and film an intelligent con movie. Go rent his "House of Games"(1987), "The Spanish Prisoner"(1997), or 2001's "The Heist" if you want to see how a good heist movie should be done.

If you are still curious and a little more adventurous in this genre, then please rent last year's Argentinean movie, "Nine Queens" ("Nueve reinas"), a superlative movie about the con of a rare set of stamps, a movie written and filmed by a 31 year old first time filmmaker and director. Far too many people in Hollywood twice his age couldn't make half this movie...
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MOVIE CRITIQUE:
Con movies by definition have to be more intelligent than the average movie as the entire premise of this genre is built on the concept of the protagonist outsmarting a selected "pigeon" or "mark." We in the movie audience are either in on the con or curious about how the con is going to unfold. There are usually many twists and turns from start to finish that make getting there more than half the fun. Con movies can be a lot of fun, especially if the movie is written in such a way that sympathy for the con artist and opprobrium for the mark are engendered in equal measure.

"Confidence" pretends to be intelligent, but then Jake Vig (Edward Burns) in many voice overs throughout this movie announces the direction and the philosophy of the scam. My great fear is that this is a correct assessment on the studio's part to the dumbed down level of intelligence of the average moviegoer of today.

Worse yet, "Confidence" in many areas of its plot is a rip off of "The Sting"(1973), but without the charm, wit, or intelligence. Or the great ragtime music. And Edward Burns, though capable, is certainly no Robert Redford.

Like "The Sting," "Confidence" starts out with an unknown mark being swindled out of his proceeds and the gang celebrating their take of a surprisingly large haul. Their joy quickly turns to fear, however, when they find out that the swindled cash had belonged to a very powerful and vengeful crime boss who then murders one of their number in revenge.

Both movies have the protagonist go to the crime boss to offer to get his stolen funds returned. Both movies have a mysterious police detective lurking in the background, threatening to undo all the well laid plans of the grift. Both movies have women of mystery and questionable loyalties who turn out to be all too handy with a gun.
Both movies end with the faked murder of the hero.

Unfortunately, only one of these movies is a classic, and that is the one that won the Best Picture Oscar 30 years ago.
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MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Jake Vig (Edward Burns) celebrates with his crew after a successful scam in a seedy Los Angeles bar leaves the pigeon cowering in his car outside as Los Angeles policemen arrive with sirens blaring. It turns out that both the officers are paid members of the gang. They make a scene as they pretend to raid the bar and capture the person who supposedly shot that blood stained body now lying on the floor. The pigeon is only too happy to speed away in the confusion.

It is only later after one of his crew has been murdered at home in his apartment that Jake realizes that the mark was a courier for a local gang boss known as the "King," (Dustin Hoffman). Jake decides to beard the lion in his den, so he visits King at his offices in a downtown strip bar. He offers to make amends, but explains that the $150,000 looted from King's courier has already been divvied up and spent, so that he must now offer to do something else for King in order to get his money back.

The only solution that King will consider is for Jake and his crew to scam a local private investment banker, a man who started off on the same wrong side of the tracks as did King but since then has done much better for himself. This has always been a point of some irritation for King, and he wants to take some of the wind out of this guy's sails.

On the way to King's strip joint, Jake passes an attractive blonde who lifts his wallet. He later spies her at King's bar making a move on a businessman, and, passing by, he lifts the wallet that she has just lifted off the businessman. Following her outside, they exchange wallets so that Jake gets his own back. Admiring her appearance and her coolness in action, he propositions her to join his planned heist. Though neither yet trusts the other, Lily (Rachel Weisz) decides to join Jake and his crew as she is intrigued by the large amount of money that might be conned.

Jake's crew consists of two long term associates, Gordo (Paul Giamatti) and Miles (Brian Van Holt), who are the only people in the world whom he trusts implicitly. And now he has Lily to contend with along with Lupus (Franky G), a loyal associate of King who is there to watch over his "investment."

Jake has also "hired" two Los Angeles under cover policemen for protection. Whitworth (Donal Logue) and Manzano (Luis Guzmán) serve as his cops on the take and they not only provide cover but also represent the long arm of the law that may occasionally be necessary to help a mark make up his mind that it is time to flee the scene.

Whitworth and Manzano are later surreptitiously filmed making a corrupt drug bust by a shady federal officer, Gunther Butan (Andy Garcia), who then uses this information to extort information from them about the plans that Jake has for his next heist. When they report this back to Jake, he confesses that this guy has been on his case for a long time. Jake now fears that he might have to call off the con of that wealthy investment banker.