NINE QUEENS

And a pair of aces.

In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 115 minutes. Rated R (profanity, a little violence). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Sunshine.

‘NINE Queens” has won a brace of awards in its native Argentina and no wonder – this clever caper movie has twists worthy of David Mamet and is enormous fun for thinking audiences.

Marcos (the superb Ricardo Darin of the Oscar-nominated “Son of the Bride”) is a slick, veteran con man who’s looking for a new partner in crime.

He founds one in Juan (Gaston Pauls), who Marcos rescues by posing as a cop when Juan is caught trying to pull off a petty scam on a convenience-store clerk.

Marcos, who disdains guns and violence in general, is more ambitious.

He masterminds a very complex plot to con a visiting billionaire (Ignasi Abadal) out of a set of extremely rare stamps from the Weimar Republic – the “nine queens” of the title.

Meanwhile, Juan, who may not be the naif Marcos believes him to be, has an eye on Marcos’ beautiful estranged sister (Leticia Bredice) – who warns Juan that Marcos has a reputation for double-crossing his partners.

Indeed, there are as many double-crosses here as in Mamet’s “House of Games,” the obvious inspiration for first-time director Fabian Bielinsky, who is also well-versed in Alfred Hitchcock.

It would be a crime in itself to reveal the surprises of “Nine Queens,” which provides two solid hours of corking entertainment.