Confidence

A lazy, paint-by-numbers thriller, Confidence follows professional grifter Jake Vig (Edward Burns) as he and his team prepare to fleece a mob-backed banker (Robert Forster’s Morgan Price) of $5 million – with complications and double-crosses naturally ensuing as the frenetic narrative unfolds. It is, quite frankly, rather astonishing just how uninvolving and underwhelming Confidence reveals itself to be, with the movie, right from its opening frames, assuming a palpably generic feel that’s reflected in its eye-rollingly mannered dialogue and plethora of telegraphed plot twists (ie Doug Jung’s lazy screenplay seems to have emerged directly from a template for movies of this ilk). The less-than-captivating environment is compounded by Burns’ aggressively smug turn as the slick protagonist, while the movie’s supporting performers, which includes Andy Garcia, Rachel Weisz, and Paul Giamatti, remain hopelessly unable to escape the confines of their uniformly one-dimensional characters. (It’s worth noting that even Dustin Hoffman, cast as a slimy crime boss, isn’t able to make much of a positive impact in his limited screen time.) There’s ultimately just never a point at which director James Foley is able to capture the viewer’s interest or attention, and it goes without saying, of course, that the various revelations contained within the movie’s final stretch are hardly as surprising or captivating as intended – with the end result an almost shockingly tedious endeavor that evaporates from one’s thoughts seconds after it’s concluded.

*1/2 out of ****

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