Juegos de seducción

"Juegos de Seducción" ("Seduction Games") is an okay film that entertains a lot, especially if you haven't seen too many movies about scammers and their tactics. The less you know about the reality of scams and con-artists the enjoyment will work for the better; but to the ones more familiar with such dark world, you won't see anything new and you won't be fooled at all about this new venture on the issue. It's like you can only get fooled by the twists if you're not paying attention, or haven't seen the better films with such themes that usually plays the tricks on the leading characters or the audiences.

The story follows Sebastian (Diego Boneta), a very charming and seductive man who scams many wealthy women, pretending to be whoever character he needs to be and get closer to them and get lots of money afterwards, taking advantage of their insecurities. To Sebastian, people's interactions are all about transactions where both people get what they want, get what they need, except that he takes a lot more from such transactions. As he says, there are no innocent people in those things. He has a point since a lot about life and the people you meet end up being the perfect personification of one's needs and sometimes even the ladies here were trying to have some advantage that Sebastian could bring or share (romance and sex are a secondary thing as his schemes revolve on selling something else through his image and confidence; so he's not the usual emotional scammer).

But what about the film transaction with its audience? It's a very predictable thing as all the required steps are given in an effortless manner so I can't say that I was completely fooled by it. An accident of sorts finds the man meeting a beautiful but desperate rich woman (Martha Higareda) who has a troubled life with a powerful abusive husband (Alberto Guerra) and Sebastian finds himself really involved with her problems, and an instant connection is formed. With the help of his loyal pot-smoking sidekick Macio (Alejandro Speitzer), they're about to make their biggest con job ever and get millions of pesos from the businessman and help the girl at the same time. You can see the complications coming, but you'll never know exactly how and when, but you can definitely guess from whom.

Films like this can only work with a heightened sense of unpredictability, great twists and thrills. This one was too obvious and far too humored (but the two dudes formed a fun team), and by the time the real danger came along it felt like coming from a different movie. Sebastian's sister has no purpose in the story except being annoying at a later part; and the love affair goes in a thin manner alternating from shared secrets and sex scenes.

It's a little involving and passable, and those with a wider view of things might learn a lot about analyzing people and intentions.

The main attractive and why "Seduction Games" works is thanks to the good performances, notably the leading man. Boneta transforms with great ease into the required roles of whatever professions he pretends to be, observing, talking and listening to the women who gets fascinated with his presence, knowledge into whatever issue they're interested and confidence. It's all done smoothly and he doesn't have that extremely great-looking sex appeal that most films tend to use when presenting seductive types; his game is more of presence and it's hard for audiences to not feel enchanted by him. Halfway thorugh the film and you're like rooting for his scheme to work out right, though in real life everybody would like to see him in jail.

Anyway, a small guilty pleasure and doesn't hurt anyone. 6/10.