Confidence

"Confidence" is a movie practically brimming over with, well, confidence.

It's an all-too-rare achievement in film these days — a caper thriller that's fast, funny and smart. All three of those things are traits that are sadly lacking from most of today's prepackaged, special-effects-heavy studio movies.

The film has enough of those qualities to compensate for a plot that's more predictable than it should be — one with too many holes.

Thankfully, the film also features a string of strong performances, including the one turned in by Edward Burns, who stars as Jake Vig. Jake and his cronies (Brian Van Holt and Paul Giamatti) are small-time cons running scams in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, their latest has backfired, causing them to run afoul of the King (Dustin Hoffman), a sleazy crime boss who's got vengeance on his mind.

But Jake fast-talks his way out of trouble, promising to pull a scam for the King that will more than make up for what he's lost. Easier said than done, especially when Jake has to train some new recruits, including Lily (Rachel Weisz), a beautiful pickpocket.

At the same time, Jake's only a step or two ahead of Gunther Butan (Andy Garcia), a low-rent FBI agent who's looking to settle a score, thanks to an earlier business arrangement gone bad.

Though some of the material is fairly dark, director James Foley treats it with a pretty light touch, allowing humor to shine through. It helps that he has such a superb cast. This is one of Burns' more assured performances. Of course, he is playing off Weisz and Hoffman — and Hoffman seems to be relishing the opportunity to play a character that could be the smarter, even seedier cousin of Ratso Rizzo (his "Midnight Cowboy" character).

The supporting cast doesn't get as much to do but that doesn't stop Garcia from trying to steal the show. Same goes for Donal Logue and Luis Guzman, who play corrupt cops in Jake's back pocket.

"Confidence" is rated R for frequent use of strong sex-related profanity, violence (gunplay and a scuffle), use of sexually suggestive language and some lewd dancing, simulated sex and sexual contact, female nudity, gore and use of some ethnic slurs. Running time: 98 minutes.

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