Nine Queens

This delightful film from Argentina is -- like David Mamet’s House of Games -- adept at the long con and the short con. Everyone in it is a con man, including writer/director Fabian Bielinski. A couple of small-timers meet cute in a convenience store, and in a day of running scams, happen upon a big score, an immaculate forgery of a philatelist treasure, the sheet of stamps known as Nueve Reinas, the Nine Queens, with an eager buyer waiting. Ricardo Darin and Gaston Pauls are excellent as the duo, laid back and perpetually wary but wise in the ways of the world, canny at playing on the weakness and confusion of anyone (including the audience.) The twists and turns are fun to follow, when you can, and if the big twist at the end is a “Now wait a minute” moment, well, you’re jolly enough to take the ride to the end. But the film has a ground level reality that distinguishes it from constructions like The Sting or Oceans 11, so there is genuine observation and insight going on amidst the gameplaying. (2002, IFC/T, n.) *7+* (MC-80.)