I can't say I was expecting much from this movie. I mean, and I don't want to sound condescending, but Hungarian cinema is not immediately the thing I think about when I want to watch a good movie. The good ratings it got could have been fake, or come from people from that country that are very proud of their country and couldn't write anything bad that comes from Hungary. It wouldn't be the first time I've been fooled like that, a couple Turkish movies pop into my mind. That said I was completely wrong. Chameleon deserves its high ratings. I just watched Rogue Agent, a similar movie based on real events, but this one certainly isn't lesser entertaining. On the contrary, I thought it was very well written, a story that makes sense, with some good twists. The acting was good as well. Chameleon is easy to watch, with some wicked characters that keep the story interesting to follow. In the future I'll give Hungarian cinema another go, not sure about Turkish movies though.

American Gigolo's made in Hungary with some conscience. Grifters with a heart and a back-up plan. Con-men Gabor and Tibi (played by Ervin Nagy and Zsolt Trill) at night pose as janitors in offices, digging through bins to find marks to help them pin down lonely victims. Gabor plays the slick gentleman, backed by Tibi, marrying women for access to their bank accounts. This brings them easy money, but when Gabor starts to fall for a high-risk mark however, things begin to spiral out of control. Uncertain whether he is playing the beautiful dancer Hanna, or falling in love with her, he gets drawn into an increasing number of complex cons to keep their relationship up.

Chameleon, unlike many of its con-film American equivalents has a certain depth. Developing characters with meticulous detail, the protagonists question their tendency towards deception, disguises and sense of achievements whilst it is also uncertain who is betraying whom.

The third feature from Krisztina Goda, after Just Sex And Nothing Else and Children of Glory, Chameleon is 2009 official Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language film category of the Academy Awards. Andreja Kmetovic

Chameleon by Bev Questad, Feb. 25, 2010

"We all had the same dream. Not women. Not Fame. Not a house. But cash… because that meant that you were someone."

This is another Hideous Man Show – but this bad dude meets the seemingly angelic, beautiful, seductive, duplicitous Hideous Woman.

Chameleon, the 2009 film submitted from Hungary for Oscar consideration, is worth seeing. Sure, there are contrivances and quite possibly the psychologist, played by László Áron, is a little too seedy. But this film is loaded with exceptional casting, acting, and psychological illumination.

The Greek term for chameleon means ground lion. A chameleon adapts to its environment to avoid detection by its predators, slinking close to its base, changing colors to falsely blend in.

Enter Gabor Farkas (Ervin Nagy), a seductive liar. Nagy has said about his role that his character didn't say one honest thing in the whole film. In the movie Farkas rationalizes, "Women believe what they want to. I don't trick them."

Adapting, sneaking, creeping around the garbage of people's lives to strike them at their most vulnerable, flicking that hypnotic tongue, luring in the prey, Farkas is the ultimate trickster, the consummate disgusting liar, manipulating the unsuspecting with his charm and wit.

Womanizers like Farkas struggle with low self-esteem and many, like our orphan protagonist, have had unstable or nonexistent relationships with father figures, especially in early childhood. This makes them feel unsure about their own self-worth, their basic identity and their own sense of power.

Abandoned by his parents, Farkas grew up in an orphanage. He plays a version of the powerless male who maneuvers through "pretending" to blend in, in order to be accepted by a society which essentially rejected him in his formative years. With his focus on adaptation rather than introspection, he is lost, without a sense of his own distinct self. When asked, "Who are you?" Farkas side-steps with unintentional honesty, "That's a good question."

Farkas (Nagy) has created so many identities, succeeding so well in so many roles, that he perhaps would think he deserves notice amongst the paintings of great actors at the New York City Players Club. However, unlike the best of actors, his psychopathic nature is incapable of guilt or empathizing. He is incapable of tears and, conversely, of feeling true joy. He is incapable of a true union with a woman or the society he is so busy trying to prove that he is better than.

In an interview Ervin Nagy explains, "I don't think I have ever had a more challenging or complex role before. I was playing a different personality in almost every single moment. The main character is an underprivileged country lad with a hard life behind him who moves up to the capital and the only money-making option that he sees a future in is the scheme of deception. So ultimately, he becomes a con artist. We would like to see a realistic picture of his psyche they said to me" (Hungarian Filmweek.com).

And Nagy does the job. His most brilliant scene is the first time he unwittingly falls prey to his own quarry – his affected seduction by an orthopedist (played with extraordinary depth by the singer/actor, Janos Kulka) results in a calculated closing insult beyond our chameleon's limited expectations. And the karma begins.

The central plot involves Farkas (Nagy) becoming obsessed with seducing one woman, a Madonna-like ballerina named Hanna Hartay, played by the lovely Gabi Hamori. His original intent, like with all his other conquests, was to seduce her in order to tap into her financial assets. As soon as he got a pay-off he'd leave her and prowl for a new victim. However, the tables soon turn and she becomes the one who needs the money from him – as well as the one factor in Farkas' life with the power to transform or destroy him.

The denouement of this film ironically involves a succession of remarkable karmic twists and convolutions. "Chameleon" labels the protagonist as well as a surprising group of others. Entertaining, insightful and surprising.