The con game is a deliciously irresistible plot device. Not only do such diverse movies as David Mamet’s “House of Games” and Stephen Frears’ “The Grifters” make for tantalizing puzzles, the very set up of who’s on top, who’s the real dissembler and who is actually fooling whom enables a sly exploration of existential queries about reality, identity and truth.
But have we played this particular ace once too often? Assuredly an apt and lively stratagem for the last decade of the 20th Century, the style seems to be getting creaky in these early years of the 21st. Certainly that’s the feeling you get watching “Criminal,” an otherwise thoughtful, meticulously plotted and acted yarn about two small-time flimflammers tossed a chance at the big time.
It’s as if the viewer stays a step ahead of both of these characters as they ban together to con a billionaire and then take turn after turn conning each other. Not that the plot is that decipherable; it’s just that you know there’s a hidden scam going on, you know there will be a twist and then an ultra-twist, so that the movie ends by raising more questions about the genre itself than the machinations in its story. As critic Edmund Wilson once famously asked about the whodunit, “Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd?”
Some of the trouble may stem from the fact that “Criminal” is a remake of an earlier, Argentinean effort, “Nueve Reinas,” or “Nine Queens.” In this Americanized version, a thirtysomething, Los Angeles pro named Richard (John C. Reilly) takes up with a scraggily, young Latino ruffian named Rodrigo (Diego Luna, one of the inspired adolescents in “Y Tu Mama Tambien”). Richard spies Rodrigo working a petty scam in a casino and then takes him under his wing, bit by bit, nudging him from nickel-and-dime swindles to dollar ones.
But thanks to help from Richard’s otherwise unfriendly sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a Biltmore Hotel concierge warring with her brother over the family inheritance, the duo stumble onto a scheme to sell a counterfeit copy of a rare dollar bill to an international financier and collector (Peter Mullan), who is staying in the hotel.
To say much more about the plot would be unfair. Certainly, the cast members turn in credible performances. Reilly plays an older version of the reluctant young hustler he portrayed in “Hard Eight.” The movie gives him the chance to indulge in characterization and nuance, unlike his more high-profile, one-dimensional outings, including “The Hours.”
Similarly, Luna demonstrates again that he’s an actor to watch, and the crusty, itchy, vaguely malevolent Mullan manages a chilling portrait in relatively limited screen time.
But novice director Gregory Jacobs can’t find the right mood to disguise what he’s up to or persuade viewers that this isn’t just a schematic, cinematic guessing game. The actual denouement suffers from some logical lapses. More than that, “Criminal” is an exercise where viewers are likely to ponder not “How did the characters do it?” but “Who cares?”
`Criminal’
(star)(star)
Directed by Gregory Jacobs; screenplay by Jacobs and Sam Lowry; photographed by Chris Menges; edited by Stephen Mirrione; music by Alex Wurman; production designed by Philip Messina; produced by Jacobs, Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney. A Warner Independent Pictures release; opens Friday. Running time: 1:27. MPAA rating: R (for language).
Richard ………… John C. Reilly
Rodrigo ………… Diego Luna
Valerie ………… Maggie Gyllenhaal
William ………… Peter Mullan
