Con men are more appealing than run-of-the-mill villains, who want to take your money because they are stronger or more dangerous than you are. Con men want to take it because they're smarter than you are. And there is hardly ever a con man who isn't likable, because, after all, if he can't win your confidence, how can he take your money? Movies about con men are seductive because the audience is on both sides of the moral issues: We want to see justice done, of course, but at the same time we're intrigued by the audacity of this character who is trying to out-think his opposition.
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London is not entirely made up of Westminster Abbey, the Tower, the zoo and bobbies on bicycles, two by two. It also is made up of the homeless in a cardboard city under Royal Festival Hall. And of squatters living in rows of houses that seem to belong to nobody. And of such people as Sammy and Rosie, living unconventional lives that they seem to improvise day by day.
Rosie is British. Sammy is from India or Pakistan - it s deliberately never made quite clear - where his father is a controversial political leader. Sammy and Rosie live in a comfortable house on a nice street that seems to be on the edge of a war zone. Anarchic mobs seem to hover just out of view. Sammy and Rosie have conventional left-wing political views and a circle of friends that spans several races and sexes. To some degree, they are upwardly mobile. Then, one day, Sammy s father (played by the famous Indian actor Shashi Kapoor) comes to visit.
The Irish seem to talk more than other people, and to take more joy from it. There are times when they have arguments simply for the sake of talking, and they don t always mind being overheard, because they love an audience. Two Irishmen in a pub may be silent. Add a stranger at the other end of the room, and they ll start talking, putting on a subtle performance.
This trait is at the heart of the comedy in The Snapper, which is a very funny movie about the people packed into small houses on a small street in a tight little neighborhood in Ireland.