- This is a movie where Nic Cage is controlled and focused, while still maintaining those lovely outburst in characters and mannerisms that we all love in his.
- This is a Ridley Scott film, you know, the guy who made Alien, Gladiator and Blade Runner. It does feature aliens, Harrison Ford or Joaquin Phoenix giving the thumbs down signal.
- Sam Rockwell is in this joint, making it about 100x cooler by proxy
- Did I mention Nic Cage is in this movie not running around and yelling and punching people all the time?
Listen, I am just continuing off my heist film pick from yesterday and decided to give the long con and griffters a chance to have a movie post all to their own. Matchstick Men was a film that flew under the radar of the lot of film fans, even for a Ridley Scott picture. To my surprise, it is slick, well done con film that had solid acting and one of my favorite Nic Cage flicks. Can’t go wrong with Sam Rockwell being involved in a film that manages to be entertaining, humorous and emotional satisfying.
Neurotic con man Roy (Nicolas Cage) suffers from several emotional problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. He and his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) swindle people out of money by posing as money collectors who promise things like tax refunds, package vacations, and other fabulous prizes (which they never get). Frank wants to pull a really big job, but Roy is too consumed with fear and panic attacks to join him. Only cigarettes and his trusty illegal prescription drugs seem to keep him going. When Roy finds himself in desperate need of more pills, he is forced to see legitimate psychotherapist Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman). Roy ends up talking about his emotional damage from a troubled marriage and divorce, which results in the discovery of a child whom he has never met. Dr. Klein suggests that he spend a weekend with the kid, so in walks teenaged Angela (played by twentysomething Alison Lohman). Reluctant to develop his role as a father, Roy also gets heavily involved in Frank’s ambitious swindle. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
Matchstick Men delivers a stunning performance from Nic Cage, who I can’t stress enough as being the soul of this film. A manic con-man with some psychological problems seems like something that can be taken overboard with Cage. But the control and ability to manipulate the character and his ticks is done so well by Cage what you get a unique anti-hero to root for. I am not opposed to anti-heroes, but this is one where we see and know he is a con-man, but his emotional problems and reluctant charm wins you over, especially when he is introduced to his daughter whom he didn’t know existed.
The meat of the films charm is with interactions between Rockwell and Cage. They have a really relaxed sensibility and their conversations deliver a lot of the films comedic moments and tense scenes. The sardonic wit that they each exude seems to play well off one another and there is never a moment where each is jockeying to be the lead of the conversation. Two phenomenal actors playing rather interesting characters in a film that relies on their chemistry to carry them through the cons they perform. Frank (Rockwell) plays a devious character well enough to come off as charming and shifty, while Roy (Cage) is a neurotic, manic man but has his moments of clarity when dealing with his new found position of fatherhood.
I think Matchstick Men stands out a lot to me because the film is really two diverging, but equally interesting story lines, both weaved together in harmony that makes a seamless cohesion to the viewer without ever calling attention to it. The story of Roy dealing with his chosen life style and psychological issues, is compounded by the introduction of Angela (Lohman) and makes for a good character study. Then the second story is between Roy and Frank pulling off a large con on an unsuspecting victim, but the slow bleeding of Roy’s private life with Angela suddenly gets mixed together and it all works so well.
Matchstick Men is a rare con film that has so many different thematic elements mixed together that you forget you are watching two con men grift people out of their hard earned money. These aren’t characters that we are traditionally supposed to like, but giving them personalities and a centered story all to themselves means It’s a different film from Ridley Scott, but a film that shows that he has the talent to take the adapted material and spin an interesting yarn for storytelling and strong acting. I put this up there in the top Cage films and honestly one of my favorite con films.
*images via RottenTomatoes
