Confidence

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Confidence grooves on the giddy joy of storytelling -- on the digressive whimsy of good dialogue, on playful editing, on the ways in which con men -- and filmmakers -- psych out their victims.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Yes, it's a hyped, hip "Sting" for our times, with goatees, mousse and attitude as part of the update package. It's also Burns's best film since "Saving Private Ryan."

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

By the end of the film, everybody has been triple- and quadruple- and even quintuple-crossed, but the characters still standing all seem to be very pleased with themselves for a job well done. If only we could figure out what the job was exactly.

Variety David Rooney

Stylish, compelling crime caper full of smoothly navigated plot twists.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

Hoffman, though, is the real gas--the vet getting dopey and loopy and handsy because, hey, what the hell...The midnight cowboy rides again.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Scenes with Burns crackle with the toxic energy that makes Confidence a game worth playing.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Run the game, bow to the movies that did it better and before, keep the dialogue on the line between hard-boiled and hokey, and throw one last curveball before the lights come up. It's a con in itself, but the reward's in the playing.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Ultimately, the con we witness in the movie is almost as beautiful as the con that is the movie -- believable in the moment, too irresistible to question upon reflection and executed with invigorating confidence.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Confidence may be mannered at times, but its shell-game plot is alive with organic trickery.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

You find yourself tricked and having enjoyed the experience after all.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Crafted with flair and style, and without pretension, Confidence achieves the modest goal of being an entertaining cinematic adaptation of a B-movie script with an A-list cast.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

As pulp entertainment, Confidence is great fun and Foley's first good movie since the very different "Glengarry Glen Ross."

Film Threat Kevin Carr

There are enough twists and turns in the plot, with an underlying “Trust No One” theme to keep the audience guessing. Maybe not all the way to the end, but pretty darn close.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Didn't see through it, though I had a rough sense of what was coming, and didn't have all that much fun. I did enjoy the movie's cheerful preoccupation with style.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

It's great to watch the cat-and-mouse of it all -- even when the movie might not be firing on all points.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Delivers a clever confidence game, if not much else.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

It all boils down to trying too hard, when everybody knows a good grift is one that appears effortless.

USA Today Mike Clark

Even with Burns' smoothest performance yet as a lead, Confidence is on a level with Steven Soderbergh's blah remake of "Ocean's Eleven." But because no one is expecting much, it seems a little better.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Even as trick movies go, Confidence feels surfacey to a fault.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Best of all is Hoffman, who hasn't had this much obvious fun since he played Hollywood producer Stanley Motss in "Wag the Dog."

Film Threat K.J. Doughton

Despite its handsome cinematography, slathered in thick, neo-noir shades of red and blue, the film has no one to root for. Place your bets on Hoffman’s terrific portrayal of a weasely, wisecracking pervert, however, and you’re sure to get your money’s worth.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Paul Giamatti steals the picture as a sardonic grifter with a phobic terror of dirty toilet seats.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The cast — a felicitous blend of character actors and up-and-comers — work together like a street-smart machine, and Hoffman's scummy turn as porn-peddler and all-around creep King is a reminder of just how sleazily funny he can be.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Does have a large and capable cast and, in James Foley, a director with a taste for visual flourishes. They all so fell in love with the script by Doug Jung they didn't notice how much a derivative retread it is of superior material like "The Grifters" and even "The Sting."

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The combination of emotional anemia, predictable plotting and tepid language makes what might have been a crackerjack treat play like a soggy piece of popcorn.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Confidence is "The Sting" without period appeal, humor, the charisma of Robert Redford or Paul Newman and the quietly seething villainy of Robert Shaw.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Confidence doesn't provide anything substantial to latch on to: Its twists and turns aren't founded on the trust needed to pull them off.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It fails to make us care, even a little, about the characters and what happens to them. There is nothing at stake.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A stale pastiche of crime-caper dramas that goes through all the usual reversals, betrayals and triple-crosses with a sense of weary obligation.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

If Confidence was made by people who have seen too many movies, it seems to be aimed at people who have seen too few. It offers up stale lessons in vocabulary and technique, all of them easily gleaned on a trip to the video store, as if they were choice bits of inside knowledge.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

A long plod to the finish line. It's a movie about a long con that, like its leading man, has no wit or style to speak of.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Features all too much footage of the scowling Burns, who has a narrower range than almost any actor working in Hollywood these days.

Village Voice Mark Holcomb

Cynically accumulates plot twists while showing little regard for suspense or audience sophistication.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The film is as tricky and superficial as its low-life characters, using visual flimflam to mask its lack of substance.

Slate David Edelstein

Hordes of good actors evidently lined up to appear in Confidence, which wastes Weisz, Guzman, Logue, Forster, and Paul Giamatti, among others. Midway through, a grizzled Andy Garcia shambles in, chewing on a cigar, as an FBI agent; he's so fatuously hammy that his true narrative function is never in doubt.