Confidence 2003

Critics score:
70 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Confidence is really no more than a B-movie with a particularly ace cast. But that's part of the pleasure. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Rarely has being bad seemed this dull. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: ... Confidence does suffer a bit from some plot devices that haven't been original since The Sting, but it's a top-notch character study and a fun exercise in style. Read more

Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune: Foley keeps the action moving swiftly enough that you don't have time to enter analytical mode. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: If Confidence was made by people who have seen too many movies, it seems to be aimed at people who have seen too few. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A pretty cool con with some pretty cool acting. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A breath of stale air that likes to pretend hard guys always have a witty answer to every question and fatal bullets to the head leave tiny bloodless holes. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: A sharp, witty thriller. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: A smart and sassy dark comedy that will keep you laughing and guessing until the very end. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Confidence may be mannered at times, but its shell-game plot is alive with organic trickery. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: The con game movie sometimes seems smitten with its own coolness, and the big scam doesn't offer much surprise. But watching the pieces fall into place is fun, and the cast has a great time. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: The movie reels us in, plays to our baser instincts, invites our trust, flatters our skepticism, and pays us out again at the precise moment our guard is let down. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: How much you're willing to give Foley and company a pass for this depends on how much you dig this genre's familiar elements. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: Surely there is something wrong with a movie that is supposed to make you go Wow! yet instead provokes a great big Huh? Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Unlike the best cons, we can always see the con artists at work. But at least it's fun to welcome James Foley back to the game. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: As pulp entertainment, Confidence is great fun and Foley's first good movie since the very different Glengarry Glen Ross. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Overplotted, overcontrived, overshot and overedited. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: What it shares with most of its predecessors is a sterling cast, in this instance almost entirely male, and the willingness of several talented performers to play against type, with entertainingly comic effect. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: For those who enjoy movies about heists, cons, and double-crosses, this will satisfy. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: What a shame, that such a well-made movie is never able to convince us it is anything more than merely well-made. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: A movie about a long con that, like its leading man, has no wit or style to speak of. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A very smart thriller. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Identity is suicidally insecure. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: You know you're being manipulated, set up for the big switcheroo, but the players are so juicy and the plot blips along with such momentum that you can only hang on and enjoy the ride. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Unlike with Mamet, there's no real payoff, not in insights, psychology or language -- just a clutch of anxious-to -charm movie stars, a puzzle-box plot, and an ending that encourages us to applaud venality. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A feature lesson in how not to make a caper movie. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: On a level with Steven Soderbergh's blah remake of Ocean's Eleven. Read more

David Rooney, Variety: A stylish, compelling crime caper full of smoothly navigated plot twists. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: Lazily assembles a batch of movie stars, turns them loose on a script that reflects nothing so much as a committee interpretation of every other caper flick, and lets them bounce off each other like so many overpaid billiard balls. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Getting taken for a ride with someone at the controls -- these are the elements that keep us watching. Read more