Heroic Losers

Argentina’s economic problems of the early 21^st century don’t exactly sound like ripe ground for a knock-about heist film, but director, Sebastián Borensztein finds the space in this broad, yet affecting comedy drama. The title refers to a group of small town friends and neighbours, led by Ricardo Darin’s Fermin, who, in trying to offer hope to their lives, plan to revive an old factory. A quick whip around takes place and eventually about half the required funds are raised. Here is where the bank steps in. After agreeing to deposit all the money, in order to act as a guarantee against a bank loan, Argentina’s Corallito crisis hits. All US dollar accounts are frozen (with peso accounts severely restricted) and the Heroic Losers are suddenly bereft.

This preamble makes up roughly the first act and events take a shift when it comes to light that a corrupt lawyer, with the help of the bank manager, has made a US dollar withdrawal moments before the government freeze occurs. Added to this is the nugget of information that said lawyer has had an underground safe made on his land not far from the town. Initially reluctant to take part, Fermin agrees to help hatch a plan to steal back the stolen money.

Heroic Losers – La Odisea de los Giles in Argentina – is based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri, who also wrote the book (and co-wrote the screenplay) of the Darin-starring The Secret in Their Eyes. The inequality of the country’s politics underpins the whole film, with characters dropping the names of Peron and even Bakunin throughout. This is nicely balanced by a couple of goofy members of the group, who provide most of the giggles. There’s also time for a little romance when Fermin’s son, Rodrigo (played by Darin’s real life son, Chino) meets the secretary of the dodgy lawyer while he’s ‘undercover’. The ultimate light bulb moment comes from an old VHS copy of a Peter O’Toole and Audrey Hepburn film, How to Steal a Million.

This daring robbery angle may be a reason why it’s been called an Argentinian Ocean’s 11, but that’s fairly wide of the mark in that there’s precious little gloss here. The jollity comes from the personalities of the characters and their collegiality but there’s a solemn backdrop of corruption and despair pervading each scene. Darin embodies this angst and pent up rage and he crackles as usual but there are many earthy, relaxed performances filling the frame. There’s nothing ground-breaking here and it sometimes comes off as a touch sentimental but the cast and the earnestness of the subject make for a satisfying watch.

Heroic Losers opens in Australia on June 10th.

[This review was also published on the Film Ink website - https://www.filmink.com.au/reviews/heroic-losers/]

See also:

Ricardo Darin is mint in scam flick Nine Queens (2000), directed by Fabián Bielinsky and, for another heist film, Jules Dassin's Topkapi (1964) is a hoot.