THE DELINQUENTS (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

The Delinquents, Mubi

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 17, 2023

Over the course of its three hours, The Delinquents tells about half an intriguing, considered story about how difficult the pursuit of a simple life is in the modern world, even when one is convinced of discovering a shortcut. The shortcut here is a bank robbery, perpetrated by an employee of said bank without a weapon, any threats, or much trouble at all, really. The guy just packs several stacks of cash from the vault into a backpack and walks out the front door.

What's fascinating, then, about the first half or so of writer/director Rodrigo Moreno's movie is that the anticlimactic heist sets in motion a string of other complications. Some of them involve the fear of getting caught, although not on the part of the character whom one would expect to have such worries, but most of them boil down to the fact that modern-day living is filled with costs. No amount of money, even what one of our protagonists believes to be the "perfect" amount to have a comfortable life, is ever enough.

Our robber is Morán (Daniel Elías), a boring, dull, and dulled by boredom treasurer of a bank in Buenos Aires. The man has a set routine by which he lives every day and which Moreno shows in flat detail, in order for us to understand just how drab and monotonous Morán's life has become. Whenever a movie of any extended length appears, one wonders if the additional time has any benefit, and in the first part of this two-part tale, it certainly does, if only to establish and subvert patterns such as the one that starts the movie.

Morán's plan, which he executes before the end of his work day, is to wait for a reason to go into the bank's vault alone, sneak a bag into the cash-filled space, and simply leave. It works, but that's just the start of the bigger scheme, because his guilt is obvious, even if he wasn't caught on camera putting a bunch of money into his backpack. He is—and intentionally so.

No, he knows that he's going to prison, and that's part of Morán's plan, too. The second part is making sure no one finds the money. That way, it'll be waiting for him when he finishes his sentence. For that, Morán entrusts co-worker Román (Esteban Bigliardi), a bank cashier almost as unassuming as himself and with a perfect alibi. Román was seeing a doctor when Morán stole the cash, so nobody will suspect that he had any part in the robbery. If Román hides the stolen money for the three and a half years Morán anticipates he'll be incarcerated, the two will split the cash, which is a sum equivalent to what the two of them would have made by working at the bank for another two decades or so before retiring.

In theory, the simple, basic math works. In reality, there are complications and barriers that neither man could have anticipated. The joke, perhaps, is that they're both too boring to do so.

This is amusing, to be sure, and if the jumbled-up nature of the protagonists' respective names isn't enough of a sign, eventually Román encounters three other characters whose names consist of the same mixed-up letters. We'll leave them for now, because their appearance marks the point at which Moreno's screenplay loses track of and focus on the real conundrums of this story.

For Morán, it's an existence in prison, which he assumes will be nothing compared to a couple decades of repetitive living for a job that's all repetition. Instead, he's faced with the threatening Garrincha (Germán De Silva), an inmate who spots the new guy's weakness and demands protection money. It's a funny gag—and funnier if one notices that De Silva also plays the boss at the bank, who starts scolding, investigating, and/or laying off the remaining employees. Yes, Morán probably worked alone, but that doesn't mean the boss, internal investigator Laura (Laura Paredes), and the head office can't punish everyone else for it.

For Román, he's stuck with a bag of cash, a girlfriend (played by Mariana Chaud) with two kids who starts to wonder why he's behaving so strangely, and the certainty that his after-the-fact complicity and current arrangement with the thief will be discovered. Moreno's methods are a bit too routine, while his observational style is a bit too objective, to label this side of the narrative as a thriller, but the weight of fear, guilt, and the constant state of deception with which Román now exists each and every day is palpable. There's no such thing as a perfect crime, if only because most people do have some wrestling with morality or, at least, some awareness of the consequences of being caught.

All of this makes up the relaxed but compelling first half of the movie, which digs into the external and internal problems of these characters, their actions, and the results of them. The second half of The Delinquents, which introduces those three other characters—including love interest and nothing more Norma (Margarita Molfino)—with familiar letters in their names, abandons the complexity for a straightforward love triangle. Moreno offers it the same attention to detail, but the issue is that, on a foundational level, there simply isn't nearly as much of it in this lengthy, disappointing resolution.

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