Confidence (2003)

The somewhat corny pun in the title (referring to con-artists and the confidence they try win of their victims) could be a potential put-off, but when you see the impressive cast you again wonder why this movie didn’t make a bigger stir in the cinemas. Upon closer study, it seems a bit of a desperate attempt to recycle some big names that haven’t produced a decent movie in a long time. I mean, when was the last time Dustin Hoffman made a good movie (Rain Man?), or Andy Garcia?

After the first 15 minutes I got a distinct feeling of déjà-vu; I had seen this film before’ ‘Hipster’ dialogue, ‘ruggedly handsome’ and cool main character doing a (superfluous) voice-over, complicated scam-story, crazy gangster boss, surprise twist at the end’ Hey, hang on, that is Snatch! And there it is: the reason why this movie didn’t really catch on. Snatch was nothing more than a small masterpiece, reaping from the rich soil that was Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. This however isn’t. The characters aren’t really cool and often miscast and I found Hoffman very unconvincing as a crazy bad guy. His performance didn’t give you the feeling that he was the dangerous mobster, therefore rendering the whole story a bit frost-bitten. The bad guys in Lock stock were -albeit funny as hell- convincingly dangerous (Ritchie did use real ex-criminals) which added to the whole atmosphere and motivation of the characters.

This is not a really bad movie, but to me the attempt to emulate the aforementioned gangster comedy -and failing to do so- was a sure recipe for failure. There were no jokes, no wacky characters, no solid and captivating script and no killer soundtrack; elements you look for when watching this sort of gangster comedy. It’ll get you through a rainy Sunday-afternoon, but don’t get your hopes up too high.

Rated: **1/2 out of 5.

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