“The film is about con artists,” Foley explained in a phone interview before the screening.  It’s about grifters who “instead of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, steal from the rich to give to themselves.  It’s really an inverse of Glengarry Glenn Ross.  In Glengarry, every one is out for himself.  In Confidence, every one is out for each other.”

Featuring an ensemble cast of seasoned and notable character actors including Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate), Ed Burns (Sidewalks of New York), Andy Garcia (Oceans Eleven), Paul Giamatti (Big Fat Liar), Luis Guzman (Carlito’s Way), and Rachel Weisz (Enemy at the Gates), Confidence is reminiscent of the type of mood and pace of Glengarry Glenn Ross which Foley directed in 1992 garnering him a prestigious Venice Film Festival award and earning Al Pacino an Oscar Nomination for “Best Supporting Actor” (even though it seemed that Pacino was the star of the film).

Confidence is screenwriter Doug Jung’s first produced feature script.  Emerging from a writing background in television (So Weird & Breaking News), Jung has written a reflexive portrayal of sleek swindlers, much of which reads like a con artist’s educational video on how to rip people off.

“I never really know why I choose a particular script,” states Foley, “I just choose scripts emotionally, and I do not analyze them too much.  If I am drawn into the world of the movie, then I know it’s a right fit for me as a director.”

Earlier versions of the script set the story in New York, but Foley “wanted to avoid the film noir look of New York’s dark alleys and streets” and he decided that the film should take place in Los Angeles.  In addition, Dustin Hoffman’s character had been originally scripted as “a 300-pound boxing gym owner” and Foley revised the character to become a slick LA King Pin.

It seems that Foley is less concerned with following a script word for word.  Instead, he interprets and internalizes the material and produces a film with a clear stamp of his vision. 

When in production “I do not look at the script after I have read it and got the story in my head.  I get a good sense of what the story’s about and direct the film and the actors intuitively.”

Much of Foley’s success has to do with the caliber of writers he has worked with over the years.  Edgy theater and film writer David Mamet (Glengarry Glenn Ross, State and Main), legendary screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Marathon Man), and celebrated writer Joseph Stephano (Psycho) have all written screenplays directed by Foley.

James Foley has also written and directed one picture: After Dark, My Sweet and when asked if he will write and direct again, he affirms:

“I will eventually write and direct again, but I don’t find directing pictures that I haven’t written that different from directing the one picture I have written.  Whether I wrote it or not, my approach would be the same.  I’d approach the work as if I haven’t written it.”

Although Foley has had a strong streak of relatively successful pictures (laced with a few flops like Who’s That Girl with Madonna), Hollywood has not been a place in which he was always completely comfortable. 

In a Toronto Sun article written by Bruce Kirkland around the time that The Corrupter was released in 1999, Foley was quoted as saying “The problem is I’ve been to the mountain and I’ve been to the valley and the valley sucks.  It sucks big time.  There are two separate issues.  One is the critical consensus, if it exists, and the other is the box office.”  It seems that his outlook on Hollywood has changed since then.

“I’m saying new things because I’ve learned more and I now know how to deal with the highs and lows in Hollywood.  I’m not placing a value system on Hollywood, but I’ve learned that once you break through the celebrity wall and once the glamour and excitement disappears,” frustration is “replaced by a focus on creative work.”

One of Foley’s first jobs in 1986 was directing Madonna in the music video for “Papa Don’t Preach.”  Then he directed her in Who’s That Girl in 1987.  Since several critics find Madonna’s performances unnatural and pitiable, it was interesting to find out what Foley thought of Madonna’s acting.

“I love Madonna, and when I directed her I also knew her, so it wasn’t like I was directing an actress because I was directing someone I knew.”  Foley continued to avow that Madonna acts wonderfully when she is properly cast “in such movies like Evita.” 

Since Who’s That Girl did not fair well at the box office or with critics, he even feels that he “let her down” as a director because the picture may have not been the best fit for her especially since she achieved a degree of success with Desperately Seeking Susan, a movie Foley enjoyed when he saw it in 1985.

Using his education in psychology, Foley continues to analyze “friends, people he’s just met, and actors” in order to better understand his personal and professional relationships with them.

“It’s part of me, to analyze people and I always find how people contradict themselves interesting.  Some people say, I don’t care…but.  If you don’t care than there is no but!”

Going back to his original career pursuit in medicine and asked if there are times he could just give it all up and forget about it when the going gets rough, Foley replies: “everyone wonders what life would have been like if they had made a different decision…but I know I am working in the career I was meant to be in.”

It seems that Foley has known this for several years.  In fact, when he attended college, enrolled in psychoanalysis and medical courses, he decided to experiment with a few film classes.

“In one class, we were assigned a project in which we had to shoot 100 feet of 16mm, black and white film and the best film was usually the film that didn’t break in the projector because it had been spliced and taped correctly.  I shot mine on a Bell & Howell Wind Up.”

When Foley’s movie was screened, he learned that it was more than correctly taped splices that made a good film.  His film was a short about a young child playing in a sandbox.  Then, by accident, an adult stepped in creating an awkward mood as if a threatened presence was introduced.

“A collective ‘Oooooooooo’ was expressed by the audience and I felt something unique, pleasurable.  Something aroused in me.”  He never named the film and it currently resides in a trunk upstairs in his home.

Humble, personable, and enthusiastic about his work, James Foley may not be the type of filmmaker who has produced a consistently themed body of work that falls in line with the Auteur theory. 

However, he does approach his work with an honest appreciation for his actors, the writing, and the subtle nuances often missed in films that are woven with gritty dialogue and uncanny plot twists.