Focus

A milquetoast office manager in the 1940s (William H. Macy) becomes the target of anti-Semitism when he gets a pair of glasses that make him look “too Jewish.” Written by Kendrew Lascelles and directed by Neal Slavin from an early novel by playwright Arthur Miller, the film has all the trademarks of Miller’s plays: the humorless solemnity, the affected poetry-of-the-common-man dialogue, the liberal conscience sputtering with indignation, shocked—shocked—at the idea of man’s inhumanity to man. There’s right-thinking rectitude, but there’s smugness and self-congratulation, too—suggesting that Jew-hating is something that was done 60 years ago by glowering B-movie villains in ominous lighting and cheap suits. Laura Dern plays Macy’s wife and Meat Loaf Aday their bigoted next-door neighbor.