THE CON

Gil Yates, unlicensed veteran of exactly one investigation (The Missing Link, 1995, not reviewed) with a winningly malapropic way with clichÇs, is hired by Los Angeles director Franklin d'Lacy to recover a $16 million Monet purchased from London dealer Jacques Moran but exchanged in transit for an amateurish forgery. Gil, who won't risk his life for pistachios, accepts a contingency fee of $1 million and jets to Europe, where he discovers he's a babe in the forest among the dealers, forgers, sexy assistants, and undercover agents bent on landing him in the minestrone. Grasping at wheat when he realizes that there's been a dizzyingly complex series of switches and that his client isn't just a victim, Gil plays cops and con artists off against each other in an insouciant attempt to bring home the sausage. Shaggy folderol with enough twists, forgeries, double- crosses, and switcheroos to make your head rotate.