Nueve reinas
Tags: plot twist, intrigue

Plot synopsis:
The film opens at a convenience store early in the morning. Juan, a con artist, successfully scams the cashier, but later makes the mistake of attempting the same scam again on the next shift. Marcos, who has been observing the whole time, steps in pretending to be a police officer and takes Juan away. As soon as they are far enough from the shop, Marcos tells Juan he is not actually a cop but a fellow con man. Juan asks Marcos to show him the ropes, because his father, also a con man, is in jail and he needs to raise money quickly to bribe a judge to reduce his father's sentence from 10 years to 6 months.
Then a rare scheme seemingly falls into their laps: Sandler, a former business associate of Marcos, needs his help to sell counterfeit copies he made of some rare stamps called "The Nine Queens". The potential mark is Gandolfo, a rich Spaniard who is facing deportation and desperate to smuggle his wealth out of the country. He has no time to fully check if the stamps are authentic but he hires an expert to do a quick check and is satisfied. He offers $450,000 for the stamps, the exchange to take place that evening. In the intervening time, a number of things go wrong. The stamp expert demands a cut, as he knew the stamps were in fact forged. The fake stamps are then stolen out of Juan and Marcos' hands by crooks on motorcycles who, unaware of their value, destroy them by tossing them into a river.
To salvage the scheme, Marcos approaches Sandler's widowed sister, the owner of the real stamps, who agrees to sell them for $250,000. Marcos can put up $200,000 and asks Juan to contribute the remaining $50,000. Juan suspects that he is being scammed, as it's a remarkable coincidence that Marcos needs just the amount that Juan has saved up; but as the $50,000 is not enough to help his father, he reluctantly agrees. They buy the real stamps and go to Gandolfo's hotel, but he says he has changed his mind and will now only buy the stamps if he also gets to sleep with Marcos' sister Valeria, a hotel employee. Valeria's price is that Marcos must confess to their younger brother how he cheated him out of an inheritance. Gandolfo pays for the stamps with a certified check, but the bank crashes the next day, making the check worthless.
It appears that Juan and Marcos are both ruined, but the final scene is a surprise ending. Juan goes to a warehouse, where he greets the motorcycle thieves, Sandler and his sister, Gandolfo, and Juan's fiancée Valeria — revealing that the real scam was to swindle Marcos out of $200,000 as revenge for all the times he cheated his family and his partners.

Review: This is a great film, one of the best non-American movie that I've seen.
You can see it 9 times and never get tired of it, it's so well performed and directed that it's just perfect.From the beginning to the end this picture keeps you alert, there are no boring moments, even if you don't speak Spanish the dialogues can be understood, the English subtitles are OK .
In fact, Mr. Mamet can take lessons from Mr. Bielinsky in how he accomplished writing and directing with a very tight budget and still given us a film that looks a lot more expensive than what it really must have cost.Suffice it to say that 9 Queens is a joy to look at.
To tell you the truth, I was a little wary of this movie at the beginning, because the minor scams the characters were pulling off seemed kind of lame, but as the story progressed and the stakes got higher and higher, it became an engaging, clever, well-paced and well-acted heist thriller.
I have never seen a film as relentlessly uncompromising about the allure, power, and banality of the con game as I have seen in the Argentine `Nine Queens.' From the opening sequence where small-time grifter Juan pulls a $20 switch at a convenience store to the final scam that looks like `House of Cards' and `The Sting' welded onto `Hard Eight,' nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.
Wonderful little movie about two small time con-men, Marcos & Juan, in Buenos Aires who come upon a scheme involving "The Nine Queens".
All I can say is stay with it until the final credits are rolling up the screen and don't let it's slow pace for the first 45 or so minutes or so make you turn it off the movie more then makes up for it in the end..
Marcos distributes percentages to a network of swindlers to work with him but there are too many con artists in action luring each other."Nueve Reinas" is one of the most entertaining Argentinean film that I have ever seen and the film that introduced the great actor Ricardo Darín to the Brazilian audiences.
I saw this film for the first time many years ago and today I have just seen it again with my family and friends.The story seems to be inspired in "The Sting" (1973) or "The Spanish Prisoner" (1997), with sophisticated entwined schemes where the viewer never knows who is conning whom.
In Nine Queens, however, the atmosphere of deceit is so complete that everyone is either running a scam, or expecting one.This Argentinian film will never be featured to promote tourism in Buenos Aires.
This film is done in the style of David Mamet's Spanish Prisoner or House of Games.I think it is better than either of those films.The plot is carefully crafted, with lots of twists and turns.When you get to the end, you realize that everything that happened up to that point had a significance.There is not a single detail that doesn't make sense (in retrospect).The acting is understated and that makes it even more believable.
Nine Stars for Nine Queens - Another Argentinian Gem. If you ever need a reminder that you can make a class A film on a shoe-string budget, rent Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens), a marvelous, gripping, and often very funny drama about the culture of con-men and those whom they con.
it should have ended after the bank closes...THAT REALLY happened in Argentina (and it was AFTER the movie was released!) everybody's assests in the banks were FROZEN and exchanged for bonds, that value NOTHING.It should have just ended there to clearly show that the government is the biggest con artist, the worst thief of them all!great movie, you can get a feeling (in a fun way) of living in Buenos Aires sometimes...
Very well acted by the main actors as well as the rest of the cast, the plot was superb, seemingly predictable at first, there was a moment when during the film you suddenly realised that you didn't have a clue who was conning who and what exactly was REALLY going on?!Very well written and as some have said here already, the twist is wonderful and surprising, by then I had suspected every possible scenario as the reality but failed to get it right!Recommended watching.
This is a pretty good movie about con artists possibly inspired by David Mamet films like The Spanish Prisoner.
The central idea of the classic con-trick movie, exemplified by 'The Sting' and perfected by David Mamet, is that there's always a bigger con; and the director usually tries conning the audience as well, convincing us we have finally understood what's going while retaining a trick up his sleeve.
In fact, there have been so many such movies that at first 'Nine Queens', Fabien Bielinsky's effort in this genre, feels uncomfortable to watch, as it seems likely we are going to get a fairly standard assembly of trick-upon-trick: more than once it explicitly acknowledges Mamet's 'House of Games'.
The real reason this works, with a plot arguably less intricate than Mamet's finest, is the great performances from the lead actors, Ricardo Darin, and Gaston Pauls; the two mean they play are very different, and Darin's character is logically (although not in fact) unlikeable; together, they give the movie an odd-couple charm, which spreads far enough that, after spending the whole film looking for the final trap, the audience is nonetheless distracted and fails to spot it in advance.
The place for this movie es excellent which better country that Argentina to film this.
But the problem is, people who have seen too many of these 'heist/con' movies might guess each curve ball (including the ending) some time before it comes along, so the effect of the 'aha!' moment is slightly reduced.
The entire movie becomes a game of whack-a-mole, where you see a twist coming up in some time, think you have a grasp of the plot in its entirety, only to notice small signals of another one coming right ahead.
All the characters were really well played (especially Marcos(Ricardo Darin)), which is rare for a movie of this genre.
This is a movie and not real life, and the situations are not reliably portrayed as they would occur in real life, so teach us nothing.However, for the thinkers among you, you can be satisfied in knowing that it's still possible to put together an entertaining, engrossing admirable film without needing big actors, special effects, name-brand scores, hundreds of millions of dollars, the English language, or the United States.
It is unfortunate, then, that the theme is based on deception, and we as viewers have no solid ground to observe the realities of the film until it grinds to it's unexpected but ultimately meaningless end.I would like to see the writing and production team that created this movie deliver a detective story or a comedy, it would certainly be something I would buy and put on my shelf.It gets 7 stars from me.
As an Argentinian living in Spain (and before in the United States for many years), it deeply saddens me to read so many good reviews for "Nine Queens" and at the same time see how profoundly unknown to the rest of the world viewers is the Argentinian Cinema otherwise.It is a real pity, since for several decades that country has been producing an excellent cinema (incredible fact, considering their chronic catastrophic economy!).
Did you know that their total yearly budget for the whole movie industry is equal to the budget of ONE single average North American movie?!I believe that for somebody interested in exploring a bit further about Argentinian films, IMDb could be an excellent start.All the above applies exactly the same for the Brazilian, the Mexican and the Spanish movies (I myself, since living in Spain, am head over heels in love with the Spanish cinema).A few (very few!) Argentinian movies I've seen and loved here in Spain:"El sueño de Valentín" ("Valentin")-2003- Director: Alejandro Agresti...
When considering the quality of the film a viewer definitely would notice the specific camera angles in which the scenes were shot and the non-dialectic sound, and know that Bielinksy put a lot of time and effort into this piece of work.
The con is always aimed at the audience, like a mystery movie with more complexities than simply "whodunit?, the audience needs to be fooled and then there needs to be pay off where all is revealed, this obviously should not be easy to figure out or otherwise the film wouldn't work.
It wouldn't be a proper con film.This brings a problem for writers, as more and more con movies are made and become a distinct style of its own, more and more elaborate and unlikely narrative tricks are needed to hoodwink the audience so in order they will remain guessing the outcome to the end.
Its very interest how the director shows Buenos Aires, not only in a decadent way as much of our films does (which is not a critic to them), and over everything, it´s original comparing to the what we have seen recently.
I think that Argentina cinematography is excellent, for an obvious reason, when you have a low budget to make a movie (with few efforts from the state, not knowing if it will be released in theatres, or will ever see the money invested again) you have to make something different and original to succed.
We can see real people doing the thing that are really done in Argentina...This is not an excelent movie but it shows that we are in the right way...
This film is about 2 guys who are con men, theres always a Teacher and an apprendice,but theres more than meets the eye in a con they get for selling some rare stamps to a mob boss,The movie moves fast and the dialogue is very funny and intelligent.
Caper/revenge movies like "The Sting" and "Ocean's Eleven" usually fill you in on the characters and their roles at the beginning and then you see how the whole scam plays out.
I saw this movie when I was 8 and it made me fall in love with cinema , a great movie full of drama , action and also funny moments ,the acting of Gaston Pauls and Ricardo Darin is excellent as always and you can see that the chemistry between the two starring character is great, the story keeps you on the edge of your sit at all times guessing if Marcos and Juan are going to the able to swindle the fake "nine queens" , and you're gonna loved the unexpected ending.Nine Queens is A timeless masterpiece ,The American version "Criminal" didn't do justice to this masterpiece but it wasn't bad.
"Nine Queens" is a movie in which we watch two con artists try to make a deal with a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps.
Also in their try to make this deal happen they have to give many things in order to get what they want, so we watch them fight with their selves to succeed this.I really liked this movie because of the plot which I believe it was great and in some moments I could not know what to believe or better who to believe.
About the interpretations of this movie I have to mention the very good interpretation of Ricardo Darín who was for one more time outstanding in his role and the interpretations of Gastón Pauls and Leticia Brédice who were equally good.Lastly I want to say that "Nine Queens" is a really different movie than the other Crime - Thriller movies because it combines very good the plot which is perfectly written with the cast.
Nine Queens is a fantastic film out of Argentina, with a screenplay by Fabián Bielinsky, who also directs.The story concerns two men, Marcos and Juan, both low-level con men, who become partners in order to pull off a once in a lifetime swindle.
The set of characters involved and the complexity of the scams grow crescendo, making it a captivating movie full of twists and turns.
the acting performances are fantastic (with a shocking ending well done), the storyline is well worked out, the music is at it's place, the sounds are promising, ...if you want to see a good foreign movie, don't hesitate to watch this one..
Nine Queens requires double the allotted running time to view, because as soon as it is over you will want to watch it again.Gastón Pauls is the hangdog scam artist Juan, a small-timer with the vestiges of a conscience that can only hamper his career as a grifter.
Well acted, directed and photographed, the basic story is simple but clever and has a great twist at the end that I just didn't see coming (and I don't think I'm easily fooled).We really do need to pay more attention to "foreign language" films.An English language remake, "Criminal", was released in 2004.
It is one of the best films about con artists and swindlers I have seen.It is great to see such good films coming from Argentina, a country with a lot of talent and artistic heritage to draw on.
I hope when the inevitable American re-make comes they get the right tone of more like "Usual Suspects" than "The Sting" though there's plenty of laugh out loud humor amidst "The Heist"-like treacheries.Writer/director Fabian Belinsky makes a terrific debut with a wonderful cast, including crafty Ricardo Darin (though sporting a more annoying haircut than in "Son of the Bride (El Hijo de la Novia)"), innocent-faced Gaston Pauls, and vixen Leticia Bredize.I didn't quite follow all the twists and Milo Minderbinder deals (though I appreciated the tribute to "Charade"), and the re-make will have to Americanize one financial twist unique to Argentina, but that can be easily Wall Street-ized.
At one point one grifter asks the other: "What kind of work do you qualify for by doing this (con games) and perfecting your skills?" Answer: "A ministerial portfolio?" I liked this film a lot and I love Argentina and its people, but the film also reminds you that Argentine society has been on the verge of breaking down for some time.
In contradiction of a poor movie which wants to run like a rich one (it's the same outline in the film : there's no rich men, all is fake), the 3 characters appears completely different from the beginning to the end and that's make a really "rich" film.
A wonderful film that must rank with all the great Con/Sting depictions in Cinema History.There is also the powerful subtext showing some of the economic problems that were to engulf the country in 2002.The storyline will keep you so engrossed that when the end comes.........WOW !!
A fitting irony considering this is a film about con-artists.It has a nice line in sardonic humour, especially the older con-artist Marcos (Darin)and the running gag with several villains complaining about 'crooks' etc.The double twist at the end perhaps doesn't take your breath away like 'the Usual Suspects' (Spacey's Oscar winning performance), but this is a cunning, interesting film (and much more intriguing than Mamet's 'Spanish Prisoner')..
Everything works fine in this movie: the direction, the timing, the end.
It reminds me to my all-time favorite argentine movie "Esperando la Carroza" in the way local color is used to make the picture believable and familiar to us, even if they are such different films.
They are hearless, evil-looking Marcos (Ricardo Darin) and gorgeous, baby-faced Juan (Gaston Pauls).Well done but slow moving...that's never a good idea in a movie where everybody is double-crossing everybody else.
You have to see it for yourself , nostalgia aside.I dare anyone to call a con movie from Hollywood, that is better than this.Even those that we have come to call Classics.I highly recommend this movie to anyone that loves twists surprises and plot plays that would have you thinking , what on earth just happened..
"Nueve reinas" has all of these elements in it, making this a great movie to watch!
Saying that it's often being clever does not mean that it's also totally going overboard with anything and the story becomes too hard or complex to follow.It has some solid characters in it as well and the movie gets mostly carried by its two main leads, played by Ricardo Darín and Gastón Pauls.
Nine Queens was undoubtedly one of the best thrillers i have seen in recent years.It has all the ingredients for a good movie.It has Good story,neat screenplay and excellent acting.I don't want to write even a single bit of a story in my review because its worth watching it,even without reading the plot.It is such a lovely movie where 2 hrs of your time will pass just like that.I didn't even get bored for a single moment.Hats off to the director Fabien Bielinsky for writing this wonderful script and executing it with panache.As far as acting is concerned, Ricardo Darin was excellent and Gausto Pauls was simply superb.The other artists also performed their roles well.Camera-work and background score was nice.So what are you waiting for go ahead and watch this movie..
The film pairs together two con artists who try to score one big take by selling a sheet of rare stamps, The Nine Queens.
...for those people that would miss this movie because it is with subtitles.This is an excellent, entertaining movie that if had been made by Hollywood it would have become a blockbuster for the only reason that it would be spoken in English...Well acted, including in its cast some of the best Argentinian actors; Darin is superb in his portray of a disgusting character that goes in the world betraying even his younger brother and asking his sister to go to bed with somebody she doesn't know when money is the issue.