Focus (2001 film)

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
*Joseph Ziegler as Mr. Garage
*Arlene Meadows as Mrs. Dewitt
*Peter Oldring as Willy Doyle
*Wendy Lyon as Elsie
*Robert McCarrol as Meeting Hall Man (as Robert Mccarrol)
*Shaun Austin-Olsen as Sullivan
*Kevin Jubinville as Mr. Cole Stevens
*B.J. McQueen as Mel
*Conrad Bergschneider 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." On Metacritic the film has a score of 53% based on reviews from 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
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."
Category:Paramount Vantage films
Category:Films starring William H. Macy
Category:English-language films
Category:2001 drama films
Category:American films
Category:American drama films
Category:Antisemitism in the United States
Category:2000s English-language films
Category:Films about antisemitism
Category:Films based on American novels
Category:Films set in Brooklyn
Category:Films set in the 1940s
Category:Films set on the home front during World War II
Category:Films shot in Toronto
Category:2000s drama film stubs
Category:Paramount Classics films
Category:Films on VHS
Category:Films on DVD
Category:1:85:1 Aspect Ratio Films