Is Will Smith conning moviegoers in 'Focus'?

IN HIS notorious bomb "After Earth," Will Smith made the claim that "fear is not real."

Then he took a gander at the movie's box-office receipts and evidently changed his mind, making the bankable choice of playing a glamorous confidence man in "Focus," a sort of "Ocean's Eleven" with Smith in nine of the roles.

The ultraslick "Focus" - easy to take but hard to believe - puts Smith back in his comfort zone, displaying the cocky charm and way with a joke that made him a star. He's Nicky, a high-class grifter leading a team of pickpockets and hoodwinkers into New Orleans for the Big Game (apparently you can't say Super Bowl, or Roger Goodell will kill you) and then moving on to the Big Con.

Smith knows that moviegoers love a con man, and he leans heavily on that here. Maybe too heavily. It's one thing to see Nicky outfox a smug billionaire, another to see him brag about small-time identity theft.

Can that be made cool, or admirable?

Most con-man movies are careful to target a greedy casino owner or other deserving target. "The Sting " had it right - cheat an even bigger cheater. This movie goes after poor tourists at the Super Bowl (bite me, NFL) who presumably have their savings drained and reputations ruined by a device that steals their bank/credit-card info.

The movie hopes you won't notice by engaging in its own sleight of hand: Tasering you every five minutes with a shot of Margot Robbie in a thong, or descending a spiral staircase in a striking gown, like Scarlett O'Hara.

"Focus" uses Robbie like a cinematic arm bar, deployed until you agree to accept her as the new It Girl.

Uncle.

Robbie plays Nicky's apprentice and love interest, with him at glamorous, fetchingly photographed locations around the world. Their relationship (always in who's-conning-whom flux) moves from New Orleans to sunny Buenos Aires, where Nicky is involved in a complex swindle involving fancy Formula One race teams.

Of course, all con-man movies exist to con the viewer, so we can assume that nothing is what it seems and that we're being deliberately misdirected.

Using those assumptions, it's actually pretty easy to guess what "Focus" is up to. So the Big Reveal is a Big Yawn - and also nonsense, as it relies on an utterly outrageous coincidence. Unless I missed something, which is possible, since the movie is so sunny and warm, I wanted to take a midday nap.

Or unless the resolution is explained in one of those storytelling winks that's revealed five minutes into the closing credits, which include a nod to the "con-artist adviser" in charge of "pickpocket design."

Keep your hand on your wallet.