Harlan (Kevin Pollak). the hero of Gary Yates's sly, smart and seriously entertaining first feature Seven Times Lucky, is the last in a line of scammers, hustlers and black market bottom-feeders. He's a bag man for Eddie (Babz Chula). one of Winnipeg's most prominent fences, and also runs his own sketchy crew including punkish pickpocket Fiona (Liane Balaban) and Sonny (Jonas Chernick). a local dimwit Harlan keeps around primarily out of pity.

But then Harlan is the kind of mug who's easily put upon. As the film opens, he gets a hot tip on a horse race and has a whack of cash - the undelivered weekly drop - beckoning from the top of his dresser. Not surprisingly, the bet fails to payoff, sparking a series of cons that (given those involved) invariably go down twisted.

Part thriller, part caper flick, but primarily a character study, Seven Times Lucky is reminiscent of underappreciated seventies classics like Robert Benton's The Late Show or Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. Its characters are anachronisms, still living and dressing as if it were the forties or pretending to lead normal lives. (The first time we see the ruthless local kingpin, Mr. Five Wounds (Gordon Tootoosis), he's making Christmas decorations.) Of course, these fillips give events a comic feel, but they also underline the central split between those whose affiliations extend beyond the cash nexus - and those who only care about money. Here, affectation is a mark of sincerity.

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