Rating: 8/10
Review date: November 25, 2003
A con man who suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder discovers one day that he has a 14 year old daughter that he never knew existed. As they develop a great father-daughter relationship, he struggles to prevent his daughter from disrupting his orderly life and jeopardizing his scams.
As with most other con flicks out there, they tend to have a major twist or just twists directed towards the audience. Once you are beyond that however, there is not much re-watch value since you already know what the twist is.
Fortunately, Matchstick Men has a very strong and convincing cast aside from a decent story that sustains my interest all the way to the end. The storyline is rather predictable is you think hard enough but then again this is always an arguably subjective matter (the other one being comedy movies).
Nicolas Cage�s acting ability really shines here as Roy Waller. His portrayal of a man suffering from OCD is brilliant and very convincing while managing to strike a humorous tone along the way.
Alison Lohman stars as Angela (Roy�s fourteen year old daughter) who gives another dazzling performance. I actually have a hard time believing that she is actually twenty-three years old. Her acting really convinces me that I am watching a teenage actress instead of a twenty years old plus adult (the fact that she looks cute might have clouded my judgment). Simply astounding; I�ll be waiting to see more of her in future movies.
The other major player is Sam Rockwell as Frank Mercer (Roy�s prot�g� and partner-in-crime) who kind of pales in comparison to Cage and Lohman. This is most probably caused by the excellent portrayal of father-daughter relationship between Roy and Angela. The chemistry between Roy and Frank doesn�t turn out to be that strong but then again it is not a very central element to the storyline thus it doesn�t matter that much.
Director Ridley Scott has accomplished what few people would have been able to do; that is to take an overdone theme involving con men albeit with a fresh new take. The fact that Ridley Scott introduces a light and rather humorous tone to the movie certainly helps aside from the accompanying lighthearted music throughout e.g. during the opening scene.
Matchstick Men is recommended for Nicolas Cage fans (I being one of them) who appreciates his acting as well as those who are looking for a fun time at the movies. As I said earlier, some people might find the plot twists predictable (such as me) while there are those who will not see it until the end (such as my girlfriend). Regardless of that, Matchstick Men is ultimately another great movie by Ridley Scott which entertains in a slightly different way than his previous movies e.g. Black Hawk Down (2001) and Gladiator (2000), just to name a few.
Memorable quote: �I�m not a criminal. I�m a con artist.�
-Nicolas Cage as Roy Waller-
(c) Martin Taidy