Focus

Milquetoast William H. Macy becomes the object of bigotry when the fateful purchase of new glasses leads to his being mistaken for Jewish in this heavy-handed commentary on social perception and discrimination in America during the 1940s. The directorial debut of noted photographer Neal Slavin, visually Focus is an enthralling cross between a Norman Rockwell painting and a Dick Tracy cartoon, while socially it reveals the ugly underbelly of the idyllic world Rockwell captured. Macy gives a tremendous performance--all buttoned up, bow-tied and bespectacled--as an acquiescent man caught in a web of discrimination and malignancy, and the story is emotionally effective, offering a timely reminder that race is not a definition of character nor a standard by which people should be judged. But while the characters are refreshingly complex, the film is didactic in its conventional message of tolerance and ultimately feels far more like a sermon than the cautionary/historical fable. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)