In theaters

CONFIDENCE, directed by James Foley, written by Doug Jung, 98 minutes, rated R.

Perhaps more than any other con film in recent memory, James Foley’s “Confidence” is aware of its lineage, such films as “The Sting,” “House of Games,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and “The Grifters,” movies that were just as much about style as they were about pulling off a daring heist.

Working from a screenplay by Doug Jung, Foley knows the genre’s tricks and he employs them liberally, featuring a dense, complex plot rife with twists, a loose, appealing style that’s every bit as cool as the genre demands, and the sort of over-the-top, tough-guy dialogue that suggests David Mamet decided to get high and poke a little fun at his own work.

There’s no denying it – “Confidence” is confident when it comes to imitating the films that came before it, but what does it bring to the game that’s fresh? Unfortunately, not much.

The movie stars Edward Burns as Jake Vig, a smooth, Armani-clad con man we first see lying dead in an alleyway with a gunshot wound to his chest. “So, I’m dead,” Jake says in the punchy narration that accompanies the film. “I think it’s because of the redhead.”

What redhead? Taking a cue from “Sunset Boulevard,” the film is off and running in an effort to find out, telling its story in flashback from the point of view of a dead man.

Reaching back to the three weeks prior to Jake’s death, the film lays out the blueprint for why he was murdered. Since this is a con-game movie, with all that implies, that also means that the audience is about to be conned, so pay attention to the details.

Without giving too much away, the film looks for answers to Jake’s death by observing his relationships with his partners in crime (Paul Giamatti and Brian Van Holt), the redheaded femme fatale he comes to court (Rachel Weisz), the federal agent (Andy Garcia) and two L.A. cops (Donal Logue and Luis Guzman) following his every move, the hired thug (Frank G) with the toothy grin, and the porn king (Dustin Hoffman) who refuses to be scammed by Jake twice.

Fueling the movie is the $5 million heist Jake and company are looking to steal from an unsuspecting banker, but really the film is mostly about its hipster style, going so far as to note at one point that “sometimes style can get you killed,” even when it’s more accurate to say that sometimes style can get in the way of substance, which is the case here.

“Confidence” isn’t a bad movie; it’s just a tidy, predictable mimic lifted considerably by its talented cast, all of whom work overtime to shape the material into what they wish it could have become – a smarter thriller that raised the bar.

Grade: B-

On video and DVD

BARAN, written and directed by Majid Majidi, in Farsi and Dari, with English subtitles, 94 minutes, not rated.

Set in northern Iran, Majid Majidi’s “Baran” focuses in part on the hardships suffered by the Afghan people pre-Sept. 11, 2001, but also on the bond that forms between Lateef (Hossein Abedini), a lazy young Iranian construction worker, and Rahmat, an Afghan boy whose father was hurt in a fall at the construction site and whose family’s survival now depends on him.

When Lateef, a tea boy at the construction site, loses his job to Rahmat, thus damning Lateef to a more difficult life of hauling sacks of cement for a living, he bullies the boy relentlessly.

But as the story builds to its core revelation – a secret that won’t be revealed here but which audiences will see coming long before Lateef – the film’s brooding mood lifts as Lateef’s world opens with unexpected possibilities, an infusion of hope and the prospect of love he finds in a mysterious Afghan girl named Baran (Zahra Bahrami).

Joining Mosen Makhmalbaf’s “Kandahar,” last year’s other timely, must-see film set in the Middle East, “Baran” offers U.S. audiences an opportunity to re-evaluate their opinions of the Iranian and Afghan people by challenging how well they really know them. Are they so different from us? And if so, how different?

Based on Majidi’s own script, “Baran” begins with an aerial shot of the construction site before moving inside. There, everything seems to be smoldering, from the fires burning deep within the metal drums, which provide the only source of heat, to the people themselves, who are paid almost nothing for their work and whose faces reflect a desperation only matched by their fierce sense of pride.

As grim as the film sometimes is, “Baran” is hardly without humor.

Sometimes it’s funny, particularly in the early scenes Lateef shares his with boss, Memar (Mohammad Reza Naji), and then later with Rahmat. It’s that sharp, often mischievous sense of humor that will catch most off guard.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.