The con is on

CONFIDENCE stars Edward Burns as Jake Vig, a small-time con artist who has just had a big score.

Vig and fellow con artists Al (Louis Lombardi), Gordo (Paul Giamattia, and Miles (Brian Van Holt) have just scammed an accountant out of $150,000.

But when Al is found dead in his apartment with a bullet in his head the guys realise they have robbed the wrong guy.

The accountant was working for local gangster The King (Dustin Hoffman) and he’s not too happy at being ripped off.

To make amends Jake and his friends agree to work for The King and set about setting up a $5m scam to pay off their debt and set themselves up for life.

Jake recruits sexy pickpocket Lily (Rachel Weisz) to replace Al, but things don’t go according to plan. And with FBI agent Gunther Butan (Andy Garcia) hot on their trail, the seemingly straightforward scam becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse.

As you would expect from this kind of film, Confidence tries to keep you guessing with plenty of twists and turns, but none of them are very clever and it’s a little annoying that you can stay one step ahead of the plot most of the time.

How tough could it have been to come up with a shock or two to throw us off the trail?

Confidence makes up for its lack of originality with an abundance of style, particularly when Hoffman and Burns take centre stage. They both put in commanding performances under difficult circumstances.

Hoffman brings a sleazy menace to an unpleasant character, while Burns seems to have returned to his best as the scheming Jake.

A triumph of style over substance.

Drama, 15. 3/5