DIRECTED BY James Foley

STARRING Ed Burns, Dustin Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Andy Garcia

Advertisement

Opens August 22, Cert 15, 98 mins

If the notion of (yet) another bunch of fast-talking eccentric conmen pulling off a daring heist with a twist doesnโ€™t fill you with thrills, be assured this more than makes up in pizzazz what the concept might lack in originality. The inconsistent but sometimes spot-on Foleyโ€™s drawn the best from some great actors, and Doug Jungโ€™s debut script is a peach, if peaches were funny and cool. Everyone involvedโ€™s having a blast, in a thinking personโ€™s blast kind of way, and it comes across. Confidence swaggers through every second, with just cause.

The opening sequence is a gem. Smooth grifter Jake (Burns) and his crew are enacting a quite ingenious con: we whoop along with them when itโ€™s over. The catch is they only now realise theyโ€™ve ripped off creepy crime lord Winston King (aka โ€œThe Kingโ€), whoโ€™s played by Hoffman as an hilariously camp yet violent sleazeball. Auditioning strippers for his club, he explodes, โ€œIf youโ€™re gonna eat each other, do it tastefully!โ€ More significantly, heโ€™s soon sizing Jake up: โ€œHmm, youโ€™re good, I canโ€™t tell when youโ€™re lying. But Iโ€™m getting there.โ€ Itโ€™s Hoffmanโ€™s most Ratso-like role for an eternity, and he rocks.

Advertisement

Set a challenge by The King, the likeable Jake enlists vampish pickpocket Lily (Weisz) to his gang, but is less keen on The Kingโ€™s henchmen tagging along. Corrupt cops and a mysterious โ€œagentโ€ (Garcia) also scramble the suspenseful equation, as the mission to put the sting on a big-time bank unfolds. Suffice to say there are many, many double-crosses, twists, cons and counter-cons, and a complex flashback structure in there just to keep you on your toes. Better, the jokes are plentiful and slightly mad. โ€œThe gig is up,โ€ sighs one crew member. โ€œItโ€™s jig, guy,โ€ corrects another. โ€œItโ€™s the jig that you say is up.โ€ Like Oceanโ€™s Eleven with added irony, Confidence, admittedly a good-looking film, relies on the noun of its title to charm and engage. The final flurry of twists may be a dozen too many for some, but by then youโ€™re happily prepared to let it slide. You trust it: ergo, it works. Often dazzling.