Nevertheless, the movie entertains you until the unfulfilling ending. Juan (Gastón Pauls) is a youthful neophyte plying the small-time sleight-of-hand trickery that got John Cusack beaten up in The Grifters. His innocent-looking face makes him a useful partner to Marcos (Ricardo Darín), an older, visibly craftier pro who cons because it's his nature (unlike Juan, who's doing it only to earn money to get his father out of jail) -- he'll scam sweet old ladies out of a few pesos or put on an act just to score a free newspaper, yet he takes umbrage at being called a thief: he earns his spoils through his wits and his cojones. The men team up for a day to try each other out, during which a potentially lucrative opportunity comes their way, involving a wealthy stamp collector and a sheet of rare stamps (the Nine Queens).
Both actors are charming in their own ways, and you don't mind being taken for a ride with them. But too much of the plot depends on coincidence, on the mark doing exactly what's expected. Even though, the more I think back on the film, the better the pieces fit, there are still gaps where the whole thing would have fallen apart if one of the characters hadn't done precisely what was anticipated.
I've rarely had as much trouble reading subtitles as I had with Nine Queens -- the dialogue is so fast. Often the action on screen is moving quickly as well, and I sometimes had trouble following both action and words. (On a random note, I happened to mention this movie to a guy -- who looks kinda like Bill Pullman -- on whom I have a completely inappropriate crush, and damned if my crush didn't evaporate when he wrinkled his nose and said, "Ugh, I hate movies with subtitles.")
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