‘Confidence,’ where is thy ‘Sting’?

“Confidence” is the film for you if:

You’re excited by smug references to characters with names like Tommy Suits, Matzo Mozzarella and Chinatown Schmidt;

You enjoy bogus tough talk on the order of “shut your pie hole” and “the skirt has a point”;

Your appetite for stories of grifters grifting and marks being taken is stronger than your resistance to overly familiar material.

Given that the industry that is Hollywood has raised the con to an art form, it’s predictable that movie executives can’t stay away from tales of scams so super complicated a computer would have trouble sorting things out.

“Confidence” does have a large and capable cast and, in James Foley, a director with a taste for visual flourishes. They all so fell in love with the script by Doug Jung they didn’t notice how much a derivative retread it is of superior material like “The Grifters” and even “The Sting.”

Ed Burns plays Jake Vig, a cocky con man with a gift for “lying, cheating and manipulating.” He and his crew mistakenly rip off an associate of the King (Dustin Hoffman having fun), a feared L.A. mobster always ogling the attractive bar girls who are obligatory in these kinds of juvenile male fantasies.

To pay the King back, Vig agrees to cut him in on his next con, an elaborate edifice that requires the hiring of the attractive pickpocket Lily (Rachel Weisz, tired of playing the nice girl), who ends up only minimally involved.

For “Confidence” is more fake and less convincing than its own con, a breath of stale air that likes to pretend hard guys always have a witty answer to every question and fatal bullets to the head leave tiny bloodless holes. The directorial flourishes Foley is partial to are supposed to camouflage all sins, but, as the King understands, “sometimes style can get you killed.”

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‘Confidence’

MPAA rating: R, for language, violence and sexuality, nudity

Times guidelines: Foul language, adult situations

Ed Burns...Jake Vig

Rachel Weisz...Lily

Andy Garcia...Gunther Butan

Dustin Hoffman...The King

Lions Gate Films, in association with Cinerita, presents an Ignite Entertainment and Cinewhite production, released by Lions Gate. Director James Foley. Producers Marc Butan, Michael Paseornek, Michael Burns, Michael Ohoven. Executive producers Eric Kopeloff, Marco Mehlitz, Eberhard Kayser, Scott Bernstein. Screenplay by Doug Jung. Cinematographer Juan Ruiz-Anchia. Editor Stuart Levy. Costume designer Michele Michel. Music supervisor Joel High. Production designer Bill Arnold. Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes.

In general release.