“Nueve Reinas”

Nueve Reinas
(Nine Queens)
2003, by Fabián Bielinsky with Gastón Pauls, Ricardo Darín. Running time 115 minutes.
Two petty crooks, Juan (Gastón Pauls) and Marcos (Ricardo Darín), join forces for a half-million dollar heist. In the middle is a series of counterfeit stamps, bins and counterfeiters, double-faced characters and morals: but even the two bunglers haven't told each other everything... Loaded with considerable success at various festivals, 'Nine Queens' is a fine film. If the models are avowed (from Mamet's 'The House of Games' to the Italian comedy of Monicelli and Risi), the screenplay is like a Swiss watch, the direction never banal, the actors simply stunning. And the detective and picaresque intrigue travels like a pleasure towards an ending, if not exactly surprising, at least more original than the genre average.

CATEGORIES

• Theatre