Marcos: Ricardo
Darin; Juan: Gaston Pauls; Valeria: Leticia Bredice;
Gandolfo: Ignasi Abadal; Aunt: Pochi Ducasse; Federico: Tomas
Fonzi
From the BBCi review by Tom Dawson [Read
Full Review Here] :
Cinema has always been well-suited to con-artist movies, perhaps because the
medium itself is based on illusion, deception, and directorial sleight of hand.
Fabián Bielinsky's fast-moving "Nine Queens" - a huge hit in
its native Argentina - is a welcome addition to the genre, comparing favourably
to the likes of Stephen Frears' "The Grifters" and David Mamet's "House
of Games".
The less the filmgoer knows about the narrative's twists and turns, the better
- except to remember that nothing and nobody is quite what they seem.
Alongside the quicksilver performances of Darín and Pauls, and a number
of sly supporting cameos, the real-life urban locations furnish "Nine Queens"
with an immediacy and authenticity: we're left with a sense of a bustling modern
city, awash with hustlers and thieves, pickpockets and swindlers, all taking
advantage of the anonymity of the crowd.
Moreover, recent events in Argentina - specifically, the disintegration of the
national economy, destroying the savings of millions - have given this taut
thriller a powerful allegorical resonance.
BY ROGER EBERT [Read
Full Review Here] :
Fabian Bielinsky's "Nine Queens" is a con within a con within
a con. There comes a time when we think we've touched bottom, and then the floor
gets pulled out again and we fall another level. Since nothing is as it seems
(it doesn't even seem as it seems), watching the film is like observing a chess
game in which all of the pieces are in plain view but one player has figured
out a way to cheat. "David Mamet might kill for a script as good,"
Todd McCarthy writes in Variety. True, although Mamet might also reasonably
claim to have inspired it; the set-up owes something to his "House of Games,"
although familiarity with that film will not help you figure out this one.
The film starts with a seemingly chance meeting. Indeed, almost everything in
the film is "seemingly." A young would-be con man named Juan (Gaston
Pauls) is doing the $20 bill switch with a naive cashier - the switch I have
never been able to figure out, where you end up with $39 while seemingly doing
the cashier a favour. Juan succeeds. The cashier goes off duty. Juan is greedy
and tries the same trick on her replacement. The first cashier comes back with
the manager, screaming that she was robbed. At this point Marcos (Ricardo Darin),
a stranger in the store, flashes his gun, identifies himself as a cop, arrests
the thief and hauls him off.
Of course Marcos is only seemingly a cop. He lectures Juan on the dangers of
excessive greed and buys him breakfast, and then the two of them seemingly happen
upon an opportunity to pull a big swindle involving the "nine queens,"
a rare sheet of stamps. This happens when Valeria (Leticia Bredice), seemingly
Marcos' sister, berates him because one of his old criminal associates tried
to con a client in the hotel where she seemingly works. The old con seemingly
had a heart attack, and now the field is seemingly open for Marcos and Juan
to bilk the seemingly rich and drunk Gandolfo (Ignasi Abadal).
Now before you think I've given away the game with all those "seeminglys,"
let me point out that they may only seemingly be seeminglys. They may in fact
be as they seem. Or seemingly otherwise. As Juan and Marcos try to work out
their scheme, which involves counterfeit stamps, we wonder if in fact the whole
game may be a pigeon drop with Juan as the pigeon. But, no, the fake stamps
are stolen, seemingly by complete strangers, requiring Marcos and Juan to try
to con the owner of the real nine queens out of stamps they can sell Gandolfo.
(Since they have no plans to really pay for these stamps, their profit would
be the same in either case.)
And on and on, around and around, in an elegant and sly deadpan comedy. A plot,
however clever, is only the clockwork; what matters is what kind of time a movie
tells. "Nine Queens" is blessed with a gallery of well-drawn character
roles, including the alcoholic mark and his two bodyguards; the avaricious widow
who owns the "nine queens" and her much younger bleached-blond boyfriend,
and Valeria the sister, who opposes Marcos' seamy friends and life of crime
but might be willing to sleep with Gandolfo if she can share in the spoils.
Juan meanwhile falls for Valeria himself, and then there are perfectly timed
hiccups in the plot where the characters (and we) apparently see through a deception,
only to find that deeper reality explains everything - maybe. The story plays
out in modern-day Buenos Aires, a city that looks sometimes Latin, sometimes
American, sometimes Spanish, sometimes German, sometimes modern, sometimes ancient.
Is it possible the city itself is pulling a con on its inhabitants, and that
some underlying reality will deceive everyone? The ultimate joke of course would
be if the Argentine economy collapsed, so that everyone's gains, ill-gotten
or not, would evaporate. But that is surely too much to hope for.
Note:"Nine Queens" is like a South American version of "Stolen
Summer," the movie that won the contest sponsored by HBO, Miramax, and
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. According to Variety, some 350 screenplays were
submitted in an Argentine competition, Bielinsky's won, and he was given funds
to film. It's illuminating that in both cases such competitions yielded more
literate and interesting screenplays than the studios are usually able to find
through their own best efforts.
Neil Young, Jigsaw Lounge [Read
Full Review Here] :
According to writer-director Bielinsky, audiences should watch Nine Queens knowing
zero about it beforehand. He's right - part of the fun is second- and third-guessing
which way the plot is going to twist next, and we're constantly projecting forwards
in search of double- and triple-bluff. But it won't do any harm to reveal the
opening is lifted straight from Paul Thomas Anderson's debut Hard Eight, transplanted
to Buenos Aires... as the plot rapidly escalates, it never falls into the Mamet
trap of becoming too clever for its own good, even if it is hard to keep track
of exactly what percentage of the final haul is going to which crook. This is
a pleasurable kind of confusion - Bielinsky keeps us constantly on our toes,
aware that we're almost-but-not-quite keeping up with the rat-a-tat dialogue,
the coincidences and contrivances, the dizzying switchback of double- and triple-crosses.