"Confidence" is the cinematic equivalent of a dream date that's really a nightmare: gorgeous, stylish and utterly insincere. You know half an hour into your second Martini (which he suggested you drink, of course) that this guy, no matter how presentable, is not a person to introduce to your mother. He's callous. Shallow. Always on the cell phone to some girl called Cindy or Aliysha. Sigh. Likewise, "Confidence," which is directed by James Foley ("Glengarry Glen Ross") and stars Edward Burns, is all talk (an astounding amount of lines, plus a voice-over narrative throughout) and swagger, expensive suits and gleaming convertibles. The style-over-content factor is so deliberate that you begin to wonder if the title is masking a secret insecurity.
"Confidence" is the tale of a young grifter trying to pull off a big con. Foley has called this a remake of "The Sting," but the differences are a bit glaring, like an unmemorable soundtrack and the sad fact that you can't bring yourself to care about any of the characters.
Burns ("Sidewalks of New York") plays a trickster named Jake Vig, who is supposedly a composite of Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the George Roy Hill original. This is a tall order for any seasoned A-list actor, and for Burns (for all his surplus of down-home Irish charm), it's a veritable Mount Everest. In the opening sequence he seems compelling -- we are introduced to Jake as he lies there, face down in a pool of his own blood ("So, I'm dead. It was probably the redhead"). But Jake quickly loses his mysteriousness as the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks set to the intoning of his endless monologue.
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