Confidence
Confidence is The Sting: The Next Generation

Like a good mystery, a good con game movie should keep the viewer guessing all the way to the very end. The new film Confidence does that to such a degree that it ranks right up there with the best con films of all time including House of Games, The Grifters and the granddaddy of them all, The Sting.

Confidence stars Edward Burns as Jake, the leader of a group of conmen who have moved into Los Angeles. When one of their marks (conman talk for victim) turns out to be a carrier for a cruel underworld kingpin called “The King” (Dustin Hoffman, in an amazing turn), one of their own is murdered as a form of retribution.

To settle the score and return the stolen money to The King, Jake and his gang agree to attempt a huge scam that will net the participants $5 million. The plan is far from foolproof and there are other agendas involved that could threaten not only the scheme, but also the very lives of the people involved.

Confidence gets its steam from a tightly wound script and great performances from a superb cast. Burns has always appeared a little wooden as an actor and here he uses it to his benefit as the cold-eyed con artist. The under-utilized Rachel Weisz is also perfectly cast as Lily, a street hustler looking to graduate to the big time, while the ever present Luis Guzman (Pluto Nash, Punch-Drunk Love, Anger Management, Salton Sea) provides some subtle humor as an LA cop on the take. Other fine performances include Andy Garcia in his least glamorous role ever as Federal Agent Gunther Buton—a man obsessed with bringing Jake to justice.

Like Quentin Tarentino’s Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Confidence is full of nifty dialogue, obscure pop references and odd dollops of humor. The editing is eye-catching and quick with lots of side-to-side cuts from one scene to the next. The story is told in a particularly clever frame narrative that allows the narrator, Jake, to fill in some holes for the sake of brevity and keep the story moving at breakneck speed.

While Confidence may have a few predictable parts, it is the first movie of 2003 that I immediately wanted to see a second time to catch little bits of foreshadowing that I may have missed the first go around. With its minimal promotional push, it could definitely be the under-hyped cult favorite of the year, as City by the Sea was last year.

Confidence is rated R for violence, language and brief nudity and is now playing at Regal Cinemas in Boone.