Movie Reviews

Despite being involved in some really awful films (Windtalkers for example... yuck), Nicolas Cage has always struck me as a really excellent actor. He continues that in Matchstick Men, by playing an obsessive-compulsive small-time con man named Roy Waller. Roy's daily work involves taking people's money by way of things like telemarketing scams. He's not stealing, he says, because the people he scams actually give him their money. But he doesn't deny being a criminal. "Crime does pay," he explains at one point. "Just not very well."

Roy's partner in crime, Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell), informs him of an opportunity to rake in a big score. Reluctantly, Roy agrees to get involved, and the majority of Matchstick Men follows the planning and execution of their big con. A slight disruption occurs, however, when Roy's therapist suggests that getting in touch with his long-lost daughter might be healthy for him. Intrigued by the idea, Roy finally meets his daughter Angela (Alison Lohman), and they hit it off quite all -- almost too well for Roy, though, as Angela introduces a whole whack of uncomfortable changes to Roy's obsessively and compulsively ordained life. Most notably, the fact that Angela becomes interested in what her dad does for a "living" and eventually decides that she'd like to help him do it.

The long-lost daughter device is an interesting spin on the genre of con-artist films. Lohman is really convincing as a daughter who's really curious about her dad's line of work and is excited at the possibility of helping out (not to mention that Lohman is also really convincing as a 14-year-old -- considering she was almost 25 when the movie was filmed!). And getting back to Nicholas Cage, I couldn't imagine another actor playing the role nearly as well. Cage flawlessly and realistically portrays all the ticks and quirks of someone suffering from OCD (I've been told that it's a very accurate portrayal). His internal conflict between wanting to get to know his daughter but not wanting to disrupt his life is almost tangible.

Matchstick Men reminded me a lot of last year's Catch Me If You Can. Not because they're both films about con men, but because they're both films made by big-name, big-budget directors (in this case, Ridley Scott) trying their hand at smaller, more dramatic fare, with generally positive -- but not sensational -- results. It was definitely enjoyable and the acting is great, but it wasn't particularly ambitious or exciting. The ending disappointed me a little -- it reminded me of any one of many episodes of the old Mission: Impossible television show. You'll know what I mean if you've seen the film. Regardless, it was worth watching.