Focus Movie Response

Focus: Movie response

After watching the film what resonates with me the most? What message did the filmmakers intend? And why is it important for us, as students, to view this film?

In the movie Focus, it opens with a scene of a man lying in his bed and waking up to a couple being very noisy out on the street. He gets up and peers through his blinds and sees a woman that is definitely drunk, and a man that is pushing her around. The woman sees him looking through the window and she silently pleads with him to do something. Then the man on the street hits the woman, who falls to the ground and goes quiet. The couple disappears behind a car but it is obvious they are on the ground and something is happening. The man in his room, Lawrence Newman, is now sweating after what he just witnessed but he goes to back to bed and doesn't do anything. What Newman saw that night resonates with him throughout the rest of the movie as his mom brings up the incident, neighbors bringing it up or he keeps thinking about it and at the end where he finally breaks down and admits he saw and heard the commotion when the woman got raped and he did nothing. Lawrence tries to keep his focus and the camera shows him catching his reflection in a mirror a few times, gears turning, and a merry go round spinning.

I also believe it starts with that awful scene since it weighs on the main character’s shoulders throughout the film. I can also see that the filmmakers use it to foreshadow on the bigger picture that plays in the whole