A familiar number
>> Nine Queens is a well-done who’s-screwing-whom caper movie

by MATTHEW HAYS

Every few years a twist-and-turn laden film arrives, reviewed by critics with the kind of gusto that would lead you to believe it had never been done before. Screenwriters throw in a curve ball, and voilà! You’ve got a Sleuth or a Last Seduction or a Usual Suspects maybe.

Trouble is, these films can become downright predictable in their strident attempts to be unpredictable. Though a well-acted and often quite witty film, Nine Queens, the hit from Argentina, falls into that trap.

The film opens as two small-time swindlers, Gaston Pauls and Ricardo Darin, fall into each other’s arms during a bit of petty thievery. When Pauls gets caught red-handed in the act of ripping off a 7/11-like shop, Darin admires his chutzpah enough to pretend to be a cop and “arrest” him in front of the offended shopkeeper. The two take off and virtually fall in love, bonding over the orgasmic thrills they find while ripping off little old ladies, waiters and any other unsuspecting sucker they can wrap one of their schemes around.

They then get involved in a much, much bigger scam involving more money and higher stakes. A cast of supporting thugs and questionable types fill out the movie. As with countless other films like this-The Grifters and Sting among them-it becomes quite unclear as to who’s screwing over whom.

Though this film had spirited performances and occasional flashes of good humour, I find the act of waiting around to see who’s really pulling the wool over everyone else’s eyes something of a task. It feels sort of like watching an M. Night Shyamalan movie, post-Sixth Sense: where’s the final, gotcha catch? Who will turn out to have the upper hand? Who’s getting the booty? Who’s the real swindler?
I’m a bit tired out by these films and their incessant questions about who’s got the upper hand. Rather than getting caught up in the suspense, instead I felt like I was sitting through the wrong kind of sleeper. :

Nine Queens opens Friday, Sept. 6 at the Cinéma du Parc

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