CRIMINAL
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Warner Independent Features
Grade: B+
Directed by: Gregory Jacobs
Written by: Gregory Jacobs, Fabian Bielinsky, Steven
Soderbergh
Cast: John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Screened at: Loews Lincoln Sq., NYC, 9/12/04
Have you ever been scammed, or, perhaps better expressed,
have you ever been the victim of a grifter yet was too ashamed to
‘fess up to your vulnerability? The kinds of scammers dealt with
in Gregory Jacobs's "Criminal" are of the kind who'd never be a
party to physical violence and, in fact, the more they looked like
the nice men next door to you, the easier it is for them to get
away with their schemes.
"Criminal" is a remake of the Spanish-language movie "Nueve
Reinas" ("Nine Queens"), Fabian Bielinsky's story of the teaming
up of a con man with an old pro in present-day economically
depressed Buenos Aires to try to sell a forged set of rare stamps.
The audience is challenged to guess which con man is about to
double cross the other and, in fact, whether both have such
double-dealings on their minds.
Sticking close to the the original movie released four years ago,
"Criminal" focuses principally on old pro Richard Gaddis (John C.
Reilly) who teams up with a young guy with such a nice
appearance you'd trust him with your 2004 Porsche convertible,
Rodrigo (Diego Luna). Richard and Rodrigo meet cute in a
gaming casino where the latter tries the old trick of milking
money from a clerk by confusing her about the change due him
on a $100 bill. Announcing himself as a cop (with false i.d.),
Richard arrests him, explains outside that he's not a cop but
could use Rodrigo as a teammate, and proceeds to pull the
biggest heist of his life–to free alleged billionaire William
Hannigan (played by Peter Mullan as a celluloid Rupert Murdoch)
of three-quarters of a million dollars in return not for stamps this
time, but for a counterfeit bank note worth the money for the rich
collector.
"Criminal" proceeds with twists and turns that come at us so fast
and with such cleverness that collectors in the audience–of
DVD's, that is–could run out to buy a copy of "Nine Queens" for
comparison. John C. Reilly, Mr. Cellophane in Rob Marshall's
"Chicago," comes across as a charming character actor who has
terrific chemistry with young, rising star Diego Luna ("Y tu mama
tambien). If you had not seen "Nine Queens," I challenge you to
figure out the ultimate twist, a blockbusting coup de theatre. Let
me know if you guess the finale and I'll give you a good price on
the Brooklyn Bridge.
Rated R. 87 minutes. © 2004 by Harvey Karten
at harveycritic@cs.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 38620 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1319110 X-RT-TitleID: 10003276 X-RT-SourceID: 570 X-RT-AuthorID: 1123 X-RT-RatingText: B+
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews