88
Philadelphia Inquirer by Carrie Rickey
Bielinsky's movie builds like a poker game in which the players, having invested everything, cannot afford to fold.
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80
Wall Street Journal by Joe Morgenstern
An accomplished and enjoyable Spanish-language debut feature by Fabían Bielinsky.
88
Charlotte Observer by Lawrence Toppman
Has more twists than the Pacific Coast Highway and more layers than a stack of silver-dollar pancakes. If you can wrap your mind around one unlikely condition, the picture provides unalloyed pleasure for connoisseurs of cinematic con artists.
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Liam Lacey
Often more ingenious in appearance than fact. The hunter-gets-captured-by-the-game scenario is predictable and the sequence of shell games does not, when reconsidered, actually add up.
40
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Has a customarily jovial air but a deficit of flim-flam inventiveness.
75
Baltimore Sun by Michael Sragow
The movie may be Nine Queens, but it slakes your thirst for surprises and thrills because of its Nine Jokers.
80
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
If Nine Queens were a great film, instead of just a very good one, this rottenness would be so pervasive that it would burst the bounds of the plot; it would make us shudder.
80
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
Leaves you feeling tense and terrific. It's fun to be fooled.
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
It may not keep you guessing to the end, but there are enough surprises and wry revelations, right down to the last play, to make this a most satisfying cinematic confidence game.
90
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
The kind of movie that seduces you into becoming putty in its manipulative card-sharking hands and making you enjoy being taken in by its shameless contrivance.