Confidence Review
by Andres Kahar (buzz AT namag DOT com)October 28th, 2003
Guardian Unlimited Film
Reviewed by: Andres Kahar
Reviewed on: 25 Oct 2003
This is a light, old-fashioned movie. A not-so-subtle nod to film-noir. And the hardboiled -- almost forced, definitely dated -- dialogue is what really makes the movie. Ed Burns plays Jake Vig, the lead grifter in a band of misfit cons, too well-oiled in the art of confidence cons. Though Burns has gotten a bad rap by some reviewers for his reportedly narrow range, I can't offhandedly think of a better actor to fill the shoes of Jake, the too-slick-for-his-own-health conman. The narrative (told in seamless flashbacks) is twisty, comical and economical enough to keep me hooked. Jake & his Merry Misfits (plus the sole "skirt", played fatale-ishly by Rachel Weisz) run into trouble when they unwittingly cross small- to mid-sized crime boss Mr King, played by Dustin Hoffman. Contra conventional wisdom, it's DH who deserves more of a bad rap for his 'whoa-look-at-me-act-yo-pants-off' tack. While Mr King should have been funny, he was nowhere near as amusing as Andy Garcia's fed agent, Gunther Butan. AG's clearly having heaps of fun in the role, hamming it up. The movie's directed by James Foley, who I admire for his mounting of Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). *Confidence* has a similar sort of stagy quality. Undoubtedly worth a viewing. And when it gets to the scene in which DH's King ostensibly titillates RW's wily femme, I defy anyone to buy it for more than five seconds: in any self-respecting reality, a woman of that power would have slapped the shrimp back into his station.
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