Starring Will Smith, Margot Robbie, Rodrigo Santoro, B.D. Wong, Gerald McRaney, Adrian Martinez; directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa; 104 minutes; R for language, some sexual content and brief violence

The trouble with movies about “The Big Con” is that they condition us to not believe anything we see up on screen – relationships, who is conning whom, deaths, etc.

“Focus” one-ups that by pushing a romance to the fore, one that is supposed to be fun, sexy and cute. But when we don’t buy the veteran con man (Will Smith) in love with the hot young acolyte (Margot Robbie), well, what is there to cling to?

Chemistry, or the lack of it, burns a big hole in this supposedly romantic, unconvincingly tense, feebly comical caper. It’s got an “Ocean’s 11” sheen without the requisite snap, a “Grifters” set-up without an edge or sexual spark.

Smith is Nicky, a third-generation hustler who runs a team of pickpockets, grifters and thieves who show up at major sporting events and ruin a lot of peoples’ vacations. When Jess (Robbie) throws herself in his path at a swank restaurant where she’s just lifted the wallet off a mark, Nicky sizes her up, shoots her down and inspires her plea.

“Teach me.”

So the script has Nicky unleash every Big Con cliche about a “touch,” what to do with a “poke,” what the “Toledo Panic Button” is, etc.

“Die with the lie,” he preaches. “You never drop the con. You never break.”

Jess gets in on his “Big Game” operation at the Super Dome, which provides the film’s first actual surprise. But how can this love connection work out when nobody can ever trust anybody else?

A weak villain, a couple of eye-rollingly unlikely cons and dead stretches that make 105 minutes play like 145 and you’ve got “Focus,” the last dog of February, where comatose con job movies are released to the sounds of silence.

Roger Moore, Tribune News Service

Will Smith and Margot Robbie star in “Focus.” Courtesy Kramer & Sigman Films.