Nine Queens

In Buenos Aires the small-time grifter Juan is caught working a scam in a shop. Marcos gets him out of it and proposes they work together. The same day a large opportunity appears: a forgery of a rare set of stamps known as the Nine Queens is to be sold to a wealthy collector. Everything goes wrong across the day and who is playing whom keeps changing. Fabian Bielinsky wrote and directed. Ricardo Darin plays Marcos and Gaston Pauls plays Juan. He wrote the screenplay in under sixty days, working from real scams that had happened to members of his family and from books about confidence tricks. It was first called Farsantes, then renamed Nine Queens for the poker association. The script was turned down for more than a year; producers said Argentine cinema was not fond of genre films. In 1998 Bielinsky entered it in a Patagonik Films contest and came first out of 260 submissions. The shoot had its own trouble. Leonardo Sbaraglia had been cast and left a month before filming to work on Intacto, and Ricardo Darin came in. Budget limits meant some scenes were filmed with hidden cameras, and the Hilton in Puerto Madero was under construction during production. It took 12.4 million dollars worldwide and became Argentina's biggest film in over a decade. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 92 percent. An American remake, Criminal, was produced by George Clooney's Section Eight in 2004 and went straight to DVD. Who it is for: viewers who like con films and plans that stay closed until the last moment. Who it is not for: anyone who spots the turn early. The film's whole weight sits in the final reveal, and once you have it a second viewing is a different film.