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Starring: Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro

Writers: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa

Directors: Glenn Ficarra & John Requa

Master con artist Nicky (Smith) takes promising novice Jess (Robbie) under his wing in an unashamedly 1960s-style crime caper given a 21st century makeover. Of course, being a crime caper, there are twists, turns, crosses and double-crosses as Nicky and his team ply their dodgy trade, not to mention the burgeoning relationship between Nicky and Jess. Romance is in the air but how are two thieves ever going to trust each other?

This is reasonably entertaining and undemanding stuff but there's nothing here that comes close to elevating it to the realms of unmissable (or even to the realms of very good to be honest). Will Smith and Margot Robbie do a decent enough job with what they have but their characters aren't sufficiently interesting to draw the viewer totally into their world and it's the supporting cast which end up being far more memorable. Adrian Martinez, as Nicky's long-time friend and colleague Farhad, walks off with every scene he's in and Gerald McRaney is good value as an amusingly abrasive associate of Santoro's character.

The romance between Smith and Robbie doesn't convince either. Okay, I'm shallow enough to admit that I'd probably fall for Margot Robbie about one nanosecond after I'd clapped eyes on her but Will Smith is right at the other end of the cool and assured scale next to me and so nothing about how they first meet rings true in the slightest, nor is how the relationship between them evolves. Their romance hits a snag for no other reason than the plot demands it then they're thrown back together, again, because the back half of the flick needs the added complications that brings. It doesn't develop organically so I was left not really caring if they ended up together.

As for the big cons they're nicely set up,very much like the poor old marks who get ripped off. The audience is drip-fed information about how people react in certain circumstances and how this focus (geddit?) can be used to benefit the tricksters of this world but again these set-pieces don't hit the heights I thought they would - they're fun but I wanted to be dazzled. The second half of the movie, which inevitably centres upon the highest-stakes con of them all, throws enough misdirection around but I felt the eventual reveal was a sign of the film-makers trying too hard to give the plot a final twist that almost no one would expect. Again, as with so much about this movie, there's nothing wrong with it especially but you definitely won't be talking about it for weeks to come.

There's no denying that this movie is a well-made, glossy romp, with attractive people getting into scrapes in fabulous locations. I quite enjoyed it while I was watching it but I'd forgotten a good chunk of it by the time I'd got home. If you want to watch a better movie from Messrs Ficarra and Requa I would suggest Crazy, Stupid, Love, which has a superb script and is full of characters you can genuinely care about. Even if it doesn't have Margot Robbie in it.