For me Focus is one of Meat's finest. A strong and thought-provoking storyline with a great cast. William Macey is excellent in the lead as Lawrence Newman, a timid New Yorker who when he finds he needs to wear glasses finds that his neighbors begin to perceive him differently through that subtle change in his appearance, he is mistaken for being Jewish and suddenly finds himself being ostracised by his anti-Semitic neighbors. Meat plays Fred, one of these neighbours.

Fred could so easily have been portrayed as a one-dimensional bully, but imo Meat plays the role with such subtlety and skill, that rather than this, one sees a bluff and cowardly man who joins in the anti-Semitic bullying because his need to conform to what the majority of his friends are doing outweighs his deep-down knowledge that his neighbour is a good man. There are scenes when you can see the unease he feels, but it is played so beautifully that it is only glimpsed.

It is the first movie I watched and at the end immediately rewound it and watched the whole thing again. (It wasn't releaed generally in the uK so I had to wait for a video release) Such a moving story, and Meat's role gave such force and insight into the way this kind of racism (and others) builds and takes hold in a community.

I loved it. Perhaps bullying is on my mind right now   But I thought Meat's acting in this was just so finely judged. He has that skill of being able to be saying one thing whilst you can tell his character is thinking differently. Not many actors seem to be able to do that .. he can and it shows what a fine and so often under-utilised actor he is. He's said Focus is one of the movies he likes best, and I can see why. A simply remarkable performance.

Caryl