Focus

A little-known novel by playwright Arthur Miller was the basis for this story, which examines racial and religious prejudice in America during World War II. Lawrence Newman (William H. Macy) is a bachelor in his mid-forties who shares a home with his ailing mother. Lawrence, who runs the personnel department at a business firm, has bad eyes, and after his boss insists that he get glasses, he's fitted for a pair of horn-rim specs that everyone (including his mother) says make him "look Jewish," even though he isn't. Lawrence's superiors, fearing their clients will get the wrong idea from his newly presumed ethnic background, fire him after 20 years of loyal service, and Lawrence finds himself interviewed for a job at a law firm by Gertrude Hart (Laura Dern) -- a woman Lawrence once declined to hire because he thought she looked Jewish. Lawrence profusely apologizes to Gertrude for his earlier behavior, and she not only gives him the job, but consents to go out on a date with him. Before long, Lawrence and Gertrude marry, and move to a neighborhood in Brooklyn with his mother. The presumption that Lawrence and Gertrude are Jewish follows them to their new neighborhood, which proves potentially dangerous when they encounter Fred (Meat Loaf Aday), the leader of an anti-Semitic community group who is trying to drive newsstand operator Finkelstein (David Paymer) out of the neighborhood, convinced that he's somehow involved with a rape and murder that occurred nearby. Unknown to anyone else, Lawrence witnessed the crime, but decided not to get involved; consequently, he knows that Finkelstein had nothing to do with the attack, and he and Gertrude become friends with him, which makes the couple seem all the more dangerous in Fred's eyes. Focus was the first feature film from director Neal Slavin, who previously distinguished himself making commercials for television.