Criminal

Nine Queens was quite a tidy South American genre piece, so it’s all the more puzzling that producers George Clooney, Gregory Jacobs and Steven Soderbergh resorted to ripping it off to give Jacobs an outing as a director. Like the rip of the Russian pic Solaris, the result – Criminal – is a low budget exercise which is okay to watch, but which lacks any convincing reason for its existen. 

It also starts better than it finishes, which is a regular problem with ‘box within box’ scam plots. At some point, the final layer of the onion has to be revealed, and in the case of Criminal when it comes, it makes you think back over the layers of the scam and confirms that you’ve been watching nonsense. It’s hard to describe without getting into spoilers, but if you can believe a media mogul of the order of a Rupert Murdoch can’t be picked out of a crowd, then maybe you can believe the plot in Criminal. 

Up front it’s just a nice set of scams, even if they too are on occasions a little unlikely. John C. Reilly has a nice, mournful hang dog air, as he goes about his petty scamming activities, pretending he’s a professional who always makes sure he’s on a play and pay date. 

Having lost his partner, he decides he’ll hook up with cute Hispanic Diego Luna, when he saves him from an attempted scamming of a waitress. Intent on teaching the young Luna the ways of the world, the duo go on a mini scam spree

Inevitably – that’s the way it is in this kind of show – the chance for a big sting comes along, courtesy of Reilly’s long suffering sister, played by the sweet star of Secretary, Maggie Gyllenhaal. While she battles Reilly over their dead mother’s estate (for the sake of herself and a younger brother), she seems willing to set him up for a deal with a Scottish antique currency collector (Peter Mullan).

Gyllenhaal works as a concierge in a rich hotel, so that’s where the action tends to concentrate in the second half of the movie. Unfortunately a sex scene in which she features with Mullan happens behind closed doors, though that’s what you get in this kind of show as well – the plot dominates, the characters are left on the outer, and things are hidden behind closed doors so the scam can be worked on the audience. 

That said, it’s an amiable enough exercise in low key noir, with brevity – running just over the 80 minute mark – as a key virtue – another feature of this kind of plotting, since scams are hard to sustain at length. The small cast of B names do well, with Reilly putting on his usual shaggy dog intensity, and Luna displaying real quirky charm. Gyllenhaal is required to be stitched up and low key, hunched and unhappy with her lot, and she does that well enough.

The result’s okay for a rental, but maybe you should check out Nine Queens first. It’s a better movie, good enough to lure Clooney, Jacobs and Soderbergh into this re-make. I’m sure the Nine Queen creatives are happy with the re-make fees they picked up along the way, but you’ve got to wonder why indies in the States don’t come up with their own ideas.  

Get free email now!