Nine Queens (Spanish: Nueve reinas) is a 2000 Argentine crime drama film written and directed by Fabián Bielinsky and starring Ricardo Darín, Gastón Pauls, Leticia Brédice, Tomás Fonzi and Alejandro Awada.
Early one morning, Marcos observes Juan successfully pulling off a bill-changing scam on a cashier, and then getting caught as he attempts to pull the same trick on the next shift. Marcos steps in, claiming to be a policeman, and drags Juan out of the store. Once they are back on the street, Marcos reveals himself to be a fellow swindler with a game of much higher stakes in mind, and he invites Juan to be his partner in crime. A once-in-a-lifetime scheme seemingly falls into their laps - an old-time con man enlists them to sell a forged set of extremely valuable rare stamps, The Nine Queens. The tricky negotiations that ensue bring into the picture a cast of suspicious characters, including Marcos' sister Valeria, their younger brother Federico and a slew of thieves, conmen and pickpockets. As the deceptions mount, it becomes more and more difficult to figure out who is conning whom.
Was remade as Criminal in the US.
Tropes in Nine Queens include:
- The Con: A veteran conman named Marcos takes on a younger partner named Juan and convinces him to assist him in pulling a major con on a mark who's staying in the hotel where Marcos's sister works as a concierge. The Reveal at the end is that the whole plan is really a con engineered by Juan against Marcos, which both the mark and the sister (whom Juan is dating) are in on. The goal: to trick Marcos into giving his sister and brother the inheritance he cheated them out of. The kicker: Marcos never finds out what's really going on.
- Do You Want to Haggle?: Multiple times, when people bargain how much of a cut they'll get from the final transaction.
- Groin Attack: When Fede finds out Marcos has been lying to him all of this time, he knees him in the balls.
- MacGuffin Title: The title refers to a block of rare stamps that sits at the heart of the elaborate con being planned by the protagonists. It's also the name of a set of poker chips belonging to Juan.
- Male Gaze: Marcos and Juan comment on Valeria's "nice ass". Their mark, Vidal, also takes notice.
- On the Money: Zig-Zagged. The two protagonists, Marcos and Juan, are setting up an elaborate con on a millionaire collector, that will end with him paying them $450,000 for a set of counterfeit postage stamps. After some plot twists, they lose the forgeries, but they suddenly get the possibility of buying the real stamps for only $250,000, thus making a large profit after selling them. It turns out that Marcos has exactly $200,000 saved, while Juan has exactly $50,000 saved. Juan finds it suspicious and accuses Marcos of trying to play a con on him, but Marcos denies it and convinces Juan, and they go on with the plan. It was Juan who was playing the con on Marcos.
- Parents in Distress: Juan agrees to go with Marcos' scheme because he needs more money to bail out his father.
- Running Gag: Juan is forever trying to remember how the song "Il Ballo del Mattone", by Rita Pavone, goes, and asks several people during the course of the film how it goes (Marcos even asks someone near the end). Becomes a Brick Joke at the end when, as Juan and his girlfriend Valeria are about to make out, he stops and realizes he remembers how the song goes. The song then plays over the credits.
- Sexual Extortion: The protagonists finally manage to get the real stamps and deliver them to the mark. However, the man decides he also wants to sleep with Valeria or the deal's off. She agrees to it, only if Marcos confesses to their brother how he cheated them from an inheritance. The lad doesn't take the news well.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The pair of conmen get the $450,000 in a certified check and run to the bank to cash it (Juan even hides the check somewhere on his person so Marcos won't try to steal it), only to arrive after the bank has shut down, making the check worthless. Subverted by the ending.
- A Simple Plan: To supposedly sell forgeries of rare stamps to a wealthy Spanish collector who is about to be deported, so he won't have time to verify the stamps.
- Twist Ending: Juan dejectedly walks off at the end... into a warehouse where he meets all the people involved in his scheme against Marcos, including the motorcycle thieves, the counterfeiter, the Spaniard, etc. Juan and Valeria get their happy ending together.
