This is obnoxiously heavy-handed. Except when it's not, then it's just hokey. The metaphors about how the glasses help Macy's character "see" prejudice and his explicit use of The Nuremberg Defense at one point seem potent, but they're just clumsily handled.
It's a shame. It's close to being good. The ideas are there, but the need to tell a good story and have a political message feel at odds with each other. How many shots do we need of David Paymer staring at William H. Macy from afar while tinkly piano music plays? Why doesn't Macy just take off his glasses? Are we meant to judge him for his complicit behavior and then see his growth? His character just feels…

Since it’s based on a novel by playwright Arthur Miller, it’s not that stunning that the Focus feels sometimes far too theatrical for its own good. I don’t mean that it all takes place in a few settings or feels boxed in, but rather that it uses allegories and a depiction of character that seem more suited to the stage. Set in America during WWII, the film examines the country’s anti-Semitism that resulted from our country’s involvement in a war to save Jews. Lawrence Newman (jeez, there’s a name from a stage play if I ever heard one), played by William H. Macy, is an average American. He lives in an average neighborhood with average neighbors. The world that exists…

MEANDERING AND NEVER FULLY CONVINCING

Set in the Lush Technicolor World of the War Years, this is a Film from an Arthur Miller Novel Written Contemporaneously and Brought to the Screen Over Fifty Years Later.

It was Ignored by the Distributors and the Public. It is an Inconsistent Onenote Rant about the Homefront's Anti-Semitic Fanatics with Radio Evangelists Spewing Hatred and Division when the World was Fighting Fascism.

The Propagandized Drivel was Bought and Embraced by a Surprising Number of Americans. The WASPS were Buzzing about the Jewish International Bankers Driving the USA into a War to Fight for the Semites.

The Prejudice in Middle Class Neighborhoods is Seen through the Eyes of William H. Macy a Somewhat "go along…

A fantastic film that deals with anti-semitism in a way that feels very true to life. I'll agree with the critics who call out the films lack of subtlety but real thoughts, words, and actions on issue this complex aren't always subtle.William H Macy is terrific as Laurence Newman a well liked man in his neighborhood who while he holds some of the same anti-semitic ideas as his neighbor choses to mostly stay out of those things, like continuing to put off going to meetings of his neighbor Fred's (played perfectly by Meatloaf) group The Union Crusaders or buying papers from the jewish owned shop since they have the paper his mother reads. Everything changes for him when he has…

This is obnoxiously heavy-handed. Except when it's not, then it's just hokey. The metaphors about how the glasses help Macy's character "see" prejudice and his explicit use of The Nuremberg Defense at one point seem potent, but they're just clumsily handled.
It's a shame. It's close to being good. The ideas are there, but the need to tell a good story and have a political message feel at odds with each other. How many shots do we need of David Paymer staring at William H. Macy from afar while tinkly piano music plays? Why doesn't Macy just take off his glasses? Are we meant to judge him for his complicit behavior and then see his growth? His character just feels…