Movie: Matchstick Men
Starring Nicholas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman
Written by Nicholas and Ted Griffin
Directed by Ridley Scott (Warner Brothers)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes

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There have been a few good heist and scam films this year, but Matchstick Men stands out with an unusual amount of wit and sentimentality. Nick Cage stars as Roy Waller, a practiced con artist with a whole catalogue of obsessive compulsive habits. Lately his quirks have gotten so bad that he's going to a shrink. Sounds like Analyze This? A little, but this story is far less predictable, because suddenly in the middle of his therapy he's reintroduced to his 14 year old daughter, Angela. Fortunately the film is not Road-To-Perdition-With-A-Daughter either. Angela, played with spark by Alison Lohman, who's way over 14 but perfectly believable as a kid, quickly inserts herself into Roy's life and he soon is giving her grifter lessons. Roy's partner Frank, played by Sam Rockwell with the same charm he showed as Chuck Barris in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, takes a dim view of the team's added baggage but they proceed with their main con anyway, a money switch scam directed at a rich doofus, capably played by the underrated Bruce McGill.

Director Ridley Scott's scope is rather small here, especially considering some of the high budget fare he's done in the past, but he brings it all off very well, using lots of subtle music and visual tricks to bring us Roy's off-center view of the world. I won't fill you in on all the plot's twists and turns but even though the Matchstick Men are criminals and there is a little violence at one point, thankfully the film is not an action movie. Instead it gets most of its appeal from Cage's nervous ticks and Lohman's sunny enthusiasm, all with a side order of suspense.

The film's hardly laugh out loud funny, but still there are lots of well played scenes that keep you interested. It's always good to see Cage take on new challenges and his interplay with Rockwell and Lohman makes certain that Matchstick Men is broadly satisfying. My only problem with it is a somewhat cloying denouement that has that voted-for-by-a-test-audience feel. Still, the film is much more about relationships than crime, so in a way... Nah, I don't really buy it. Who knows, maybe we'll see Ridley's real ending on the DVD.

The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film? Yes.
Would I go to see it again? I'm not sure I could stomach the ending a second time.

© 2003 - Rusty Pipes