Synopsis: Jake Vig (Burns) is a consummate grifter about to pull his biggest con yet, one set to avenge his friend's murder. But his last scam backfired, leaving him indebted to a mob boss (Hoffman) and his enforcer.

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Gary Kencey

Director: James Foley

Cast: Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Dustin Hoffman, Morris Chestnut, Leland Orser, Paul Giamatti, Brian Van Holt, Donal Logue, Luis Guzmán, Andy Garcia

CONFIDENCE (2003) is a slick greased-lightning of a con story that opens with the lead character telling the audience in voiceover that he is dead! And we're indeed looking at him lying like a broken doll in a film-noir back alley. If that's not a clever cannonball of an opening I don't know what is.

The writing by Doug Jung is fresh, witty and with twists and turns that miraculously all make sense at the end, if at the cost of resorting to blood-packs a few times too many to save the day (you'll know what the deal with the "blood-packs" is when you see the film). 

Director James Foley (of Glengarry Glen Ross) does a marvelous job of moving this tongue-in-cheek story at a rapid click with a lot of side-sweeps for scene transitions and a camera that never stops roving around even at close headshots. 

Jake Vig (well, did the last name have to be that obvious, Doug?) played by Ed Burns, is the boss of a con team that consists of Gordo (the one and only Paul Giamatti of Sideways), Big Al and Miles (Brian Van Holt). 

The con job that Vig et al pull off leaves them with two men dead and $150,000 in cash that belongs to… Winston King, a small-time psychotic lap-dance-saloon owner who can do bad things to bad people when he loses his temper. King is played to perfection and with a dangerous charm by Dustin Hoffman. 

The only way for Vig to stay alive is to carry out King's assignment: they have to con $5 million out of Morgan Price, the banker that everyone loves to hate. They somehow must con the bank to wire all the dough to an offshore bank and then bring the cash in through the Canadian border. 

Pickpocket Lily (Rachel Weisz) joins the con team both as Vig's love-interest and a crucial part of the team. She is the one who flirts the lonely and horny VP of the bank into transferring the money.

But wait, there is also Gunther Butan, an Internal Affairs cop who has been following Vig all around the world with a vengeance. Butan, as well as Price's enforcer, is on Vig's fat tail as well. 

At the end, just when Vig is caught on his knees with a gun pressed to his head and we zoom back to the opening scene, the tangled up puzzle is suddenly resolved when he is shot and killed! Or is he? You have to see the movie to savor the way this jigsaw puzzle is solved. 

Great light-fare entertainment with marvelous acting by Burns and Hoffman. Garcia, on the other hand, was a bit short-changed in the role of Butan because I know he is a gifted actor of considerable depth when the role demands it (Godfather, Dead Again). 


The Zone rates this baby a solid 7 out of 10. 


Gary Kencey ( Writer111@gmail.com) is a movie buff and a screenwriter who has finished the big-budget mystical-thriller script AFFORDING MIRACLES, a story of murdered pedophiliac priests, Virgin Mary, and human cloning. He is currently at work on his new script about the bitter-sweet road that meanders to the American Dream and sometimes does not even get there. Visit his blog at http://writer111.blogspot.com