Focus (2001 film)

Focus
Focus
Directed by	Neal Slavin
Screenplay by	Kendrew Lascelles
Based on	Focus; by Arthur Miller
Produced by	Robert A. Miller ; Michael R. Bloomberg
Starring	William H. Macy; Laura Dern; David Paymer; Meat Loaf;
Cinematography	Juan Ruiz Anchía
Edited by	Tariq Anwar ; David B. Cohn
Music by	Mark Adler
Production; company	Focus Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Classics
Release date	September 9, 2001;
Running time	106 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$645,418

Focus is a 2001 American drama film starring William H. Macy, Laura Dern, David Paymer and Meat Loaf based on a 1945 novel by playwright Arthur Miller.

Plot[]

In the waning months of World War II, a man is mistakenly identified as a Jew by his antisemitic Brooklyn neighbors. Suddenly the victims of religious and ethnic persecution, he finds himself aligned with a local Jewish immigrant in a struggle for dignity and survival.

Cast[]

William H. Macy as Lawrence 'Larry' Newman
Laura Dern as Gertrude 'Gert' Hart
David Paymer as Mr. Finkelstein
Meat Loaf as Fred (as Meat Loaf Aday)
Kay Hawtrey as Mrs. Newman
Michael Copeman as Carlson
Kenneth Welsh as Father Crighton
as Mr. Garage
as Mrs. Dewitt
Peter Oldring as Willy Doyle
Wendy Lyon as Elsie
as Meeting Hall Man (as Robert Mccarrol)
as Sullivan
Kevin Jubinville as Mr. Cole Stevens
as Mel
as Tough's Leader

Reception[]

Critical response[]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 56% based on 81 reviews, with the site's consensus "Though full of good intentions, Focus somehow feels dated, and pounds away its points with a heavy hand."^[2] On Metacritic the film has a score of 53% based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[3]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 3 out of 4 and wrote: "Doesn't reach for reality; it's a deliberate attempt to look and feel like a 1940s social problems picture, right down to the texture of the color photography."^[4]^[5]^[6]