Focus

First I must admit that I have not read the story on which this movie is based. Secondly I have to confess that I am always highly suspicious of movies which depict actions that are supposed to have happened more than fifteen years before production and try to create an authentic setting.

That much said, I would like to explain why this film disappointed me so deeply. I presume the aim of the story consists in denouncing the outrageous absurdity of racism and prejudice and not in setting up the period piece this movies tries to be. In the center of this story should be a pair of glasses generating prejudice (hence the title focus)! Instead we have performances of brilliant acting talents such as Macy (at one time absurdly, "artfully" distorted like a comic book character), Paymer, Dern and Meat Loaf, clean sets with theme park quality, flawless fotography, brilliant colours. Everybody is striving to give his or her best – and it all confounds the issue. Ambition and ultimately vanity prevailed and killed the story to a large extent. In my opinion the whole approach to the story was a wrong one.

William H. Macy is incredible in this! There's a lot of discrimination and bigotry in this movie but it doesn't take away from a great movie about people in a neighborhood and businesses against Jews. I love that the director/writer wanted to do this project since college; I wish I was at least a famous writer or consultant of some kind. Not bad at all except I must say I can't stand Laura Durns acting!

This movie tells the story of prejudice against jews in New York City, during World War II. It's great in the fact that I never knew such prejudice existed in our own country, and tells this story well. I would have liked to give this movie 4 stars, the acting was incredible all the way around. The storyline, however, kinda went nowhere, and the ending left a lot to be said. Since this is a book adaptation, which I haven't read, but I almost think they left out the last chapter. If there was some kind of resolution at the end, this would be an even better, fantastic movie. Should you see this movie? Great performances and a driving story, but just nothing left at the end. 10-21-02

One of Arthur Miller's finest works, Focus, comes to the screen and while there was a lot to like about the movie, some of it seemed like it was almost unreal (though I'm not sure if that's in a good or bad way).

William H. Macy, great as always, plays Lawrence Newman, average Joe and good guy in Brooklyn, NY in the early 1940's who finds he needs a new pair of specs. Unfortunately, his choice of glasses makes him appear to be, well, Jewish, as this seems to his mother from the start. Lawrence tries to ignore the ignorance and bigotry in his neighborhood against the Jewish people, but with a string of events involving his neighbors (Meat Loaf, David Paymer), and a new girlfriend (Laura Dern in one of her best performances) who knows what trouble Lawrence is in, push him into the conflict of his life.

Often, Focus, delivers a poignant, startling and smart story in showing a character with so much at stake it is making him insane. Macy and the rest of the cast are so close to perfect and if only for them make this a must see. Not to dissapoint the fans of Miller's book, I suppose, but if it does then that is just another flaw. B+

Others' main criticism of this film--namely that Macy suddenly looks Jewish upon donning his glasses--is misplaced. The glasses are just the little bit of change needed to CONVINCE others he's a Jew. The scene in which he says to his boss, (paraphrasing) "but you KNOW what my background is," along with another discussion with his mother, suggests that he's had to fight this same assumption in the past. The glasses now make him look just Jewish enough to "confirm" his neighbors' and co-workers' existing suspicions. Then there is his new wife's large nose and taste for loud clothes, which OF COURSE means she's Jewish. The whole point of the film is how those little stereotypical nothings become the entire basis for judging others.

If he has a lisp, he must be gay. If he has long hair, he smokes dope. If he's Hispanic, he's got a knife...and if he has round black glasses and he's slight of build, he must be Jewish. Those statements all sound equally (im)plausible to me. If the conclusion people were jumping to in Focus was reasonable, the whole point of the story would be lost.