Matchstick Men Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)September 13th, 2003
MATCHSTICK MEN
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Roy (Nicolas Cage) is a con man in crisis. The agoraphobic, dirt-obsessed, tic-laden Roy has lost the illegal pills that enable him to function so he must see a psychiatrist, Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman, "L.I.E."), to obtain new ones. Those sessions result in a meeting with the fourteen year old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman, "White Oleander"), Roy didn't know he had and she appears on his doorstep just as the sting his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind") has been pressuring him into has been put into play in director Ridley Scott's "Matchstick Men."
Cage is once again on a roll, taking character rather than action roles, and it is a pleasure to watch him work. His twitching, stuttering performance may have roots in "Adaptation's" Charlie, but Roy is a unique creation, a new father of an adolescent girl. He's the reason to see "Matchstick Men," a good film kept from greatness by a script (adapted from Eric Garcia's book by Nicholas Griffin and Ted Griffin) that tips its hand too early.
Roy closets himself in his postmodern ranch where he allows no shoes to touch carpet. Living off of Chicken of the Sea and Tarrytons, he watches light reflecting off his outdoor pool and occasionally ventures outdoors to join Frank at their office where they perpetrate sales contest fraud. When Angela moves into his home, Roy almost learns to accept teenage squalor, but his protective instinct comes on strong, pushing Angela away. In order to make amends, Roy promises to teach her a con and she takes to it like a fish to water. When Frank calls to tell Roy that their mark, Frechette (Bruce McGill, "The Legend of Bagger Vance"), is leaving town earlier than expected, Roy's forced to pull Angela into the job and the elaborate scheme unravels, endangering both of them.
Con films demand razor sharp scripts, and, unfortunately, while characters are nicely defined, the plot is compromised from its inception. The complex scheme that has been cooked up by Frank is set in motion by an accident of Roy's - chance shouldn't have been part of this equation. Still the details are rich, from the ceramic bulldog Roy stashes his cash and gun in to Angela's blackmail tactics ('I've done stuff with guys that would make you throw up') and the tentative relationship Roy has with an observant cashier at the supermarket. Technically, the film is first rate. Cinematographer John Mathieson (Scott's "Hannibal" and "Gladiator") shoots Roy's house like a gloomy tomb backlit from the outdoor pool light while all exteriors are bright and sunny.
Cage is wonderful, with a believable character arc that shows him a changed man (in an amusingly ironic profession) in the film's coda. Lohman seems more confident in her second starring outing as the emotionally needy but cheeky teen. Altman is droll in the crux position of the life-changing shrink and McGill neatly segues from innocent dupe to threatening opponent. Only Rockwell disappoints in a sketchy turn.
"Matchstick Men" is an OK sting flick, but a terrific character study of a man who accepts losing everything in exchange for piece of mind.
B
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