Criminal (2004)

Regisseur:

Gregory Jacobs

Drehbuchautoren (WGA):

Fabián Bielinsky (film Nueve reinas)
Gregory Jacobs (screenplay) ...

Premierendatum:

7. Oktober 2004 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Komödie | Krimi | Drama | Thriller

Werbezeile:

Ever get the feeling you're being played?

Plot:

Two con artists try to swindle a currency collector by selling him a counterfeit copy of an extremely rare currency bill.

Plot Keywords:

Big Con | Con Artist | Con Game | Conman | Remake

Nutzerkommentare:

"What's with the raped-virgin look?"

Besetzung

John C. Reilly	...	Richard Gaddis
Diego Luna	...	Rodrigo
Maggie Gyllenhaal	...	Valerie
Peter Mullan	...	William Hannigan
Zitto Kazann	...	Ochoa
Jonathan Tucker	...	Michael
Laura Cerón	...	Waitress (as Laura Ceron)
Soledad St. Hilaire	...	Waitress #2
Ellen Geer	...	Grandma
Brandon Keener	...	Waiter / Daniel
Nick Anavio	...	Café Manager
Deborah Van Valkenburgh	...	Woman in Elevator
Maeve Quinlan	...	Heather / Soccer Man
Brent Sexton	...	Ron
Malik Yoba	...	Frank Hill

Alternativ:

Gauner unter sich (Deutschland) [de]

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Länge:

87 Min

Produktionsland:

USA

Sprache:

Englisch | Spanisch

Farbe:

Farbe

Seitenverhältnis:

1.85 : 1

Tonverfahren:

Dolby Digital | SDDS (8 channels) | DTS

Altersfreigabe:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-11 | Ireland:12A | Peru:14 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #40569) | Brazil:14 | Germany:6

Drehorte:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Firma:

Criminal Films Inc.

Pannen:

Audio-Visuelle Asynchronität: When Richard is talking to Valerie about sleeping with William, when the scene first cuts to them, his body and head are moving as if he is saying something, yet the words don't come out until 3 seconds later, then his body stops moving yet he's still saying something.

Dialogzitate:

Richard Gaddis: [speaking to Rodrigo] You have one thing money and practice can't buy - you look like a nice guy.

Bezüge zu anderen Titeln:

Remake von Nueve reinas (2000)

Soundtrack:

Sing a Simple Song

"What's with the raped-virgin look?"

Con-man Richard (John C. Reilly) enlists Mexican petty thief Rodrigo (Diego Luna) as his new temporary partner, and soon they are engaged in a huge scam involving counterfeit money, being helped along by Richard's skeptical sister Valerie (Maggie Gyllenhaal).

In 'Criminal' you soon learn not to believe ANYTHING you see! It is an object lesson in distrust, but an engaging and wonderfully entertaining one. Who is going to f... whom over, that's what it is all about. Richard conned his two younger siblings out of their share of the inheritance after their mother, but he whines and bitches at every turn, and he proves himself to be both antisemitic and anti-black. When once again he has tried to cheat his new partner out of his cut, he exclaims, "What's with the raped-virgin look?". Richard is a terrible, terrible person, a thoroughly rotten apple who believes that "F...ing, that's when you're handcuffed on the pavement". Anything short of that he can deal with, squirming like a worm. Of his victims he says, "I don't feel anything for them. They're marks. Some of them are dumber than f ... pets!". John C. Reilly is very good in the part, although I found myself longing for just one other color on the palette, just some surprise, something not too predictable.

He says to Rodrigo, "You got something that money and practice can't buy, you look like a nice guy", and Diego Luna (the 'other' guy from 'And You Mother Too', alongside Gabriel García Bernal) has a puppy-dog appeal that works like a charm. He has genuine, unforced charm and is cuddly at all times.

Obviously, if you have watched 'The Sting' or films like the great French caper 'Les ripoux' ('My New Partner', 1984), 'Criminal' will offer you nothing new or sensational. It does have a really nice feel to it, though, taking its leisurely time to get rolling, enabling us to get to know these people. Or so we think ...

7/10