Movie Review: Confidence (2003)
Confidence (2003)
Starring: Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti
Directed by: James Foley
This has been on Movie Central HD's rotation for a few months now, and intrigued me, so when we stumbled upon it just as it was starting tonight, we decided to watch it. Annoyingly, even though it was in high definition, the film was strangely presented in pan and scan. Despite that, I decided to watch it anyway.
It's been a film that I always considered checking out, due to the strength of the cast, but until tonight, was never compelled enough to actually check it out. I'm not the only one, since the film flopped in theatres, failing to recover it's modest $15 million dollar budget. Since it didn't do so well, I'm going to assume most people reading this don't know much about the film, and thus have to provide the dreaded synopsis.
Confidence is the story of a group of grifters led by Edward Burns (and including Paul Giamatti) who find themselves in trouble when the con money out of a man who works for a Los Angeles crime boss played by Dustin Hoffman. Burns and his crew must then make it up to Hoffman by pulling off another con with the help of Rachel Weisz, all the while being pursued by federal agent Andy Garcia. The whole thing is directed by Glengarry Glen Ross and Fear director James Foley (whom, to be honest, I'd never heard of before his name popped up on the screen).
Basically, it's a heist film that has a B movie script, dressed up with some A list talent. Burns carries the flick with his natural charisma and charm, which usually cover up his average acting chops. This is probably his finest acting performance to date, mostly because the film doesn't ask much more from him than to be cool and slick. This is a style over substance movie, and, for the most part, I bought into the style long enough to enjoy it. Hoffman is slumming it a bit here, but manages to create a character interesting enough to fulfill his purpose. Giamatti was in his full on supporting character stage in his career when he did this film, and brings his usual flair to the role. Garcia is basically just there for the paycheque, and could have been replaced with anyone, not that he embarrasses himself here. Weisz is the weak-link of the cast, playing as dull a femme fatale as you'll care to find in such a film, clearly lost in the boy's club atmosphere of the flick.
The plot is standard, B movie heist, tricking the audience throughout only to show the characters in control in the end. It works well enough if the audience buys into the characters and is won over by the style, but doesn't hold up to critical scrutiny very well. Basically, Confidence is a poor man's Ocean's Eleven. Luckily, I'm a huge fan of Ocean's Eleven, so I managed to enjoy watching Confidence through its breezy 97 minute running time. I don't highly recommend it, but if you stumble upon it like I did, or are a big fan of slickster heist flicks, then it's worth giving a shot.
3/5