A seasoned con-artist's most recent trick goes wrong when his team steal money from the mob, they then go about arranging another hustle to get the money back.Director James Foley's Confidence pretty much set the formula for the UK TV series Hustle (2004) that appeared a year later and the more recent Leverage (2008). It's flashy and slick and with stylised lighting, camera work and editing.Rachel Weisz is debatably miscast, nevertheless Edward Burns is excellent in the lead role and rest of the cast are adequate. Both Andy Garcia and Dustin Hoffman are underused but what is there is, is first class. The flashbacks and narration from Burns guides you though the film, written by Doug Jung, the script is witty although there's a little too much exposition and the tone feels inconsistent at times.If you've already seen the aforementioned TV series the twist will come as no surprise but if you want to see the seed of these shows and what a gritty film version would be like - look no further.

A nice cast and clever direction give this tale of a handful of low lifes conning a major bank out of much money a lot of zest. Edward Burns with his geometrical proboscis has an interesting high-pitched hoarse voice. The lilt in Paul Giamatti's speech is bewitching. Dustin Hoffman as the gum-chewing hyperactive big shot may have the juiciest part, but everyone loses out on succulence to diminutive but amply bosomed Rachel Weisz. She's a knock out. There are fine actors even in relatively small roles -- Andy Garcia, for instance, and Robert Forster.Anyone who wants to see an example of good classical movie making should watch the scene in which Weisz picks up John Carroll Lynch at a bar and invites him to sit at a table with the gang of con men, who seduce him into playing their game. Carroll's expressions of, first, bewilderment, then burgeoning interest, are nearly perfect, but they had to be captured on film my a director who knew his business and an editor, ditto.Unfortunately, the plot looks entertaining but it's so confusing, with so many twists, new developments, and betrayals -- some of them fakes -- that I was lost. Maybe you need to know a little more about finance than I do. I don't know what you have to do to "start up" a company, and while listening to Burns and the others explaining it in the simplest possible terms, I felt at times as if I were back in high school algebra class. God, how I hated algebra.But -- alright, sometimes the plot left me in a cloud of whirling dust, but it's all done with such panache that I watched it all the way through, even if I didn't understand it. The tempo is agitato. There are points of impressive humor embedded in the story. And I kept waiting for Rachel Weisz to remove some of her hampering outer garments. Burns is an engaging guy too -- handsome, but not repulsively so, if you know what I mean, and his accent is so metropolitan New Yorkish that it sounds like he grew up next door. He keeps saying things like "leave it up to he and I," which is an ungrammatical form called a hyperlearnedism. I kind of like that touch, whether it came from Burns or from Doug Jung, the writer. It's the kind of thing a small time hood like Burns' character WOULD say.

Foley's 'Confidence' is very much a formulaic gangster con-thriller with the usual gang, the villain, the feminine touch, the weapons and money and the twists. But it still manages to remain engaging and entertaining. It's a small film but the resources have been adequately used and it is very well executed with style and substance. The cinematography and visuals are wild and the score is energetic.The story's pretty tight and moves at a steady pace. The characters are richly defined. The dialogues are sharp, witty and funny. Edward Burns's voice-over adds to the humour. Doug Jung does a splendid job indeed in the writing department.Performances by all the actors is great. Edward Burns is brilliant as the superstitious con artist Jake. His fellow team-members Brian Van Holt and Paul Giamatti are equally good. Rachel Weisz oozes sensuality (but thankfully doesn't go overboard with it) and acts very well. Andy Garcia is adequate and Dustin Hoffman is a natural (this guy will make one laugh out loud).'Confidence' is a slick stylish thriller that doesn't pretend to be anything else, when compared to other weaker movies like 'The Heist', 'Ocean's 11' or 'The Score'. It follows the formula of the genre but it's a smart film and has its twists that are enough to grip your attention.

EDWARD BURNS is a talented actor but here he's almost expressionless in a screenplay that, according to the trivia section of IMDb, uses the "f" word 130 times. Take the word out, and you've got a film that would have been a lot shorter and perhaps would have been less distracting in its obvious attempt to make the dialog sound tough.Overkill of the word is true of most of the script. It begins with a burst of energy in a scene where nobody is sure what's happening and continues in that vein for the rest of the fast-paced story. Characters come and go and none of them stick in the mind with more than surface effect.RACHEL WEISZ, DUSTIN Hoffman and ANDY GARCIA are all underused in sketchy roles and the big payoff reminds us how much more successful "The Sting" was in pulling off its own twist upon twist.Mediocre film-making in every respect, losing steam before it even reaches the halfway mark. Not worth a peek.