Prom queens go only to cool guys

It was always a mystery to the more nerdy among us why some guys were so good at getting dates in high school . Years later, the answer seem obvious: They had confidence. While many of us were trying hard to figure out what the girls wanted, these guys were acting as if they expected the girls to please them. And many did. Or at least tried to.

Fast forward to 2003. Jake Vig , the character that Edward Burns plays in the film appropriately titled “Confidence,” is the kind of guy who would have run high school. Not only is he good looking and quick-witted, he carries himself as if he’s in control. Even in situations that seem out of hand, Jake never loses his cool. And that’s an attractive quality to both sexes.

If “Confidence” screenwriter had been as much in control as his protagonist, then the James Foley -directed film might have been better. Foley has had an up-and-down career, hitting the high point with 1986’s “At Close Range” and the low the very next year with “Who’s That Girl?” He acquits himself well here, but there are just too many holes in the script (Whatever happened to Robert Forster? How did Morris Chestnut get so involved? How is it that we, the audience, are clued into everything but what turns out to be the final sting? And whose idea was it to make one twist so obvious merely by the casting choice?), so we have to blame first-time screenwriter Doug Jung. Jung is just too clever for his own good.

I wonder how many dates he got in high school?