Nine Queens (thriller)
(2002) (1 hr 54 mins)
This Argentine
crime thriller, written and directed by first-time director Fabian Bielinksy
has enough twists and turns to fill several films. It also has two engaging
main characters, and the relationship between them provides the core of the
film.
One morning,
hard-nosed con-artist Marcos sees Juan successfully pull off a bill-changing
scam on a cashier, and then get caught as he tries the same trick on the next
shift. Marcos steps in to rescue him, claiming to be a policeman and dragging
Juan out of the store. Marcos tells Juan that he is also a swindler but on a
bigger scale and invites Juan to be his partner in crime.
A
once-in-a-lifetime scam then presents itself when a friend of Marcos invites
them to sell a forged set of valuable rare stamps called the Nine Queens. The
potential buyer, Gandolfo, is a rich Spaniard who is looking to smuggle his
wealth out of the country. He offers to buy the stamps for $450,000. Everything
looks rosy until the forgeries are stolen by motorcycle thieves and thrown in
the river.
Marcos and
Juan decide to buy the real stamps from their owner, persuading her to sell
them for $250,000. If they can sell the stamps to Gandolfo, they will still
make a healthy profit. But nothing is straightforward in this film. A series of
twists and turns leave the partners on the brink of disaster. But as in the
best thrillers, all is not as it seems.
With a cast
of shady background characters, the film keeps the viewer guessing about just
who is conning whom, in a way reminiscent of David Mamet films like House of Games. The film was well
received upon release, being nominated for 28 awards and winning 21 of them.
The film was remade in the US in 2004 as Criminal.
Sadly, what seemed a promising career for Bielinsky was cut short. After making
his second film, El Aura, in 2005, he
died the next year from a heart attack, aged just 47.
No comments:
Post a Comment