Confidence Game

The shrewdest films about con artists don't just track the details of intricate stings. They also try to con us in the bargain.

But from House of Games to Matchstick Men, grifter films have become so common that audiences quickly spot their tricks. We know they'll try to con us.

Argentina's con-man drama Nine Queens, and the new American remake Criminal, both realize that we're no longer easy marks. They know that we know they'll try to con us, so they raise their game. Nine Queens' character-driven plot approached perfection, so with Criminal, first-time writer/director Gregory Jacobs doesn't mess with a good thing.

Criminal starts briskly and scarcely stops for a breath. At a Los Angeles casino, a young Latino (Y Tu Mamá Tambien's Diego Luna) runs a flimflam by short-changing waitresses. When one angry server sees through his scheme, an authoritative man (John C. Reilly) takes charge of the situation and leads the Latino out in handcuffs.

In the parking lot, the sharp-dressed man reveals that he's no police officer but a con artist named Richard looking for a new partner. When the younger man introduces himself as "Rodrigo," Richard says, "We got to Anglo you up a little," and calls him "Brian" for the rest of the film.

Criminal finds energy and color in the streets, like one of Sidney Lumet's urban dramas of the 1970s. Nine Queens' con men stalked the boroughs of Buenos Aires on foot, but nobody walks in L.A., so Richard and Rodrigo crisscross the city by car. Jacobs marks the contrast between moneyed communities like Westwood and Beverly Hills with the hard-luck Latino neighborhoods, hinting at shifts in America's ethnic and class tensions.

The temporary partners run a few "short" cons, hoodwinking old ladies and soccer moms, until a huge score drops in their laps. One of Richard's former cohorts collapsed when trying to sell the forgery of a rare bank note — "the most valuable piece of currency in the history of the United States" — to cruel media mogul William Hannigan (Peter Mullan). Richard and Rodrigo take over the scam, but when complication piles on complication, the stakes become enormously high for them both.

The con men exploit time to their advantage. Hannigan must leave the country the next day, so he can't have the fake bank note properly tested for authenticity. Criminal puts the audience in a similar position by moving at such a clip we don't have time to dwell on the plot or wonder if we're being played. We share Rodrigo's concerns of being caught in a larger swindle. "Is this real?" he'll ask. "This is happening," Richard insists.

Criminal's short, fast-paced scenes accumulate to create a compelling character study. Richard emerges not just as a desperate operator, but the kind of cheap chiseler who dips a finger in the coin return when he walks past a pay phone. Reilly's performance finds the amusing implications in the script's snappy dialogue, like when he asks Rodrigo, "You got any credit cards that work?" In one of Jacobs' few additions, Richard mentions the failed schemes that sent him twice to prison, and efficiently lays out the criminal worldview.

But Richard doesn't just fleece senior citizens without a second thought. He takes advantage of his old partners and would literally sell out his kid brother for financial gain. Hannigan stays at the Biltmore Hotel, where Richard's resentful sister Valerie (Maggie Gyllenhaal) works as a concierge. When Richard must seek Valerie's help, she forces him to confess his conniving nature to the worshipful younger brother he's been trying to cheat.

Reilly's performance gradually finds the cracks in his icy reserve and shows how Richard must face the consequences of his past misdeeds. The actor also fits the role simply because he doesn't look like a crook. With his close-set eyes, pudgy features and querulous voice, Reilly comes across more like a victim than a victimizer.

Richard tells Rodrigo, "You look like a nice guy," but I'm not so sure. Luna's raffish demeanor easily seduces his targets into bedrooms, but not necessarily out of their wallets. Luna makes Rodrigo both earnest and cagey, and when he improvises a way to trick a woman out of her purse in two minutes, we can see the wheels turn behind his eyes.

Gyllenhaal doesn't quite fit in the scheme of things. We believe her disgust with Richard, since the film shows insight into how grown siblings can get under each other's skin. But with her slumping shoulders, Gyllenhaal simply lacks the professional posture of a four-star concierge.

Criminal never really improves on Nine Queens. The original took better care to explain its story and build a tenser atmosphere of mutual suspicion. Nevertheless, it's fun to match wits with a thriller as engaging as Criminal and enjoy the behavior of such brazen, unapologetic grifters. Reilly's con man has the same chutzpah of the adulterous husband who gets caught red-handed, claims his innocence and demands, "Who are you going to believe — me or your own eyes?"

curt.holman@creativeloafing.com
Criminal teaches con film new tricks