Confidence

How's that for a vague post title? Here it refers to the title of a film (normally I call 'em "movies", but I watched this on the Independent Film Channel, so I guess this one is a "film"). Confidence, released in 2003, stars Edward Burns and Rachael Weisz, with Dustin Hoffman. The film plays like a foul-mouthed version of The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford (according to IMDB, the word "fuck" is said in Confidence 130 times).


The film starts with a voiceover: Jake Vig, played by Edward Burns, says "So, I'm dead." This reminded me of the end of the other movie when Robert Redford was "dead" at the hand of the "FBI agent." So already I'm thinking "Jake is SO NOT DEAD." Fade to black and "Three Weeks Earlier ..."


Jake and his team of grifters run a con. The mark turns out to be an operative of The King, the local big-shot crime lord. The King is really, really mad that his money is missing and has one of Jake's guys killed.


So far, we're about 30 minutes into the movie and they've practically copied The Sting's screenplay.


Jake visits The King (played to the hilt by a scenery-chewing Dustin Hoffman, clearly having a great time). The King, eccentric and possibly off his rocker, tells Jake that he'll stop killing Jake's friends and let him repay his debt if Jake manages to con Morgan Price, a banker with deep ties to organized crime. Of course, Morgan Price is The King's biggest enemy and The King wants nothing more than to humiliate this guy (and of course, The King thinks all that money would be nice, too).


The Sting again -- this is the Setup. Just like they dangled lots of easy money in front of the mob boss in the earlier movie, they're doing it here. There's even a scene were one of Jake's team says "Nobody pulls that con anymore," and somebody says something just like that in The Sting. The idea is that this con is so old it's new again. Brilliant.


I'm not going to give away the rest of the plot, because from this point on the movie, er film, is actually pretty absorbing. It gets pretty twisty and complicated and there are lots of crosses and double-crosses. It's very entertaining and it does keep you guessing from the middle onwards.


Ed Burns does an excellent job playing the smooth operator. There's something kind of blank about him in this film, by necessity. I'd like to see him in a role with more depth. Dustin Hoffman was both hilarious and frightening as the omni-sexual, brutal and eccentric crime boss.


Overall, I'd recommend this film.