A desperate 'Yonkers Joe' rolls the dice

"Yonkers Joe" is a seedy, indie variation on "Ocean's Eleven."

The title character is a small-time con man (Chazz Palminteri) who ekes out a living using loaded dice and card tricks to scam amateur players at beef-and-beers and Lion's Club picnics.

Joe barely makes enough to keep himself in a rowhouse, and so faces a crisis when he's told his Down syndrome son (Tom Guiry), while high-functioning, is too old and too unruly for the institution that has cared for him.

Finding a proper facility is an expensive proposition, and Joe can't look after the boy himself and carry on with his chosen vocation, which keeps him away from home for long stretches.

And Joe, truth be told, doesn't have the desire to care for the young man himself - a reluctance that Joe Jr. senses, and one that contributes to their testy relationship.

Joe needs money, and you can probably see where this is headed - the One Big Score that will solve all of his problems. In this case, small-timer Joe comes up with an ingeniously simple craps scam that he thinks will take a casino for big money. Not Danny Ocean dollars, mind you, but enough to smooth things out for Yonkers Joe and his son.

The movie is effectively atmospheric - writer-director Robert Celestino grew up around guys like Yonkers Joe, and does a good job recreating that offbeat world. (Veterans Michael Lerner and Linus Roache help in support).

The movie weakens a bit as it moves to Vegas, where it splits time between the proposed scam and Joe's increasingly volatile relationship with his son. Joe Jr.'s erratic behavior makes an already dangerous scheme even more so, and puts a huge strain on Joe's fragile relationship with his girlfriend (Christine Lahti).

Celestino's bid to wrap everything up in tidy fashion feels at odds with the grittiness of the film's first two-thirds, but in the end, the movie's glimpse into a seldom-seen slice of life sticks with you. It's what more American independent movies should do. *