Wonderful little movie about two small time con-men, Marcos & Juan, in Buenos Aires who come upon a scheme involving "The Nine Queens". A set of rare stamps from the long defunct German Weimar Republic that are worth a kings ransom. We then soon get to see the ups and downs by the two in the movie to first obtain them and then fence them. Marcos' sister Anibal who works as a manager in a large hotel in Buenos Aires call her brother to help an old friend of his, Sandler, who collapsed in the lobby and to take him home.
Arriving at the hotel with his friend Juan, Marcos finds old man Sandler is not only very sick but also excited about a guest staying at the hotel. Sandler also recognized Juan as the son of a person that he worked with years ago in forging money documents and stamps. Sandler tells the two con men that there's a guest in the hotel who is being deported to Venezuela within the next few days who's the multi-millionaire industrialist Vidal Gandolfo who also collect stamps for a hobby.
Sandler goes on to tell the two con-men that he can counterfeit the famous "Nine Queens" stamps and sell them to Gandolfo and they all can split the take, which runs as high as half a million dollars. The three become involve with the scheme to first fool and then fleece Gandolfo of the money he'll be willing to pay for the stamps. What they didn't realize was just how many other persons will become involve with their plan that in the end will lead to one of the most surprising endings you'll ever see in a crime caper film.
Ingenious story with a WOW ending that will keep you guessing all through the movie and won't let you down in the end. A very south, Argentina, of the border version of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" film about greed and deception and what it does to people effected by it. Fine acting and direction with a top flight story makes "The Nine Queens" one of the best of it's kind. The movie is so good that it's really hard to write too much about it in fear of spoiling it for those who haven't seen it. 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.
