MOVIE REVIEW

Matchstick Men  (2003)

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman
Directors: Ridley Scott

Rating: PG-13

Studio: Warner Bros.

Release Date: 9.12.03

Review Posted: 9.12.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara Michelle Fetters

No Con Here – "Matchstick Men" a Winning Work

Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) is a tad hard to take. More than a bit obsessive compulsive, he can’t open a door without swinging it back and forth three times, reciting “one, two, “three” to himself in a litany of languages. And what about his carpet? A forensic scientist couldn’t find a speck of ant poop on it, let alone anything that could have been left there by a human.

Then there are the Turettes-like outbursts of profanity as if sung by a minister schooled in the bizarrely profane; not to mention a penchant for blaming everything bad that happens on non-existent pygmies. Somehow, though, Roy manages to be good at what he does for a living, even if the fact that he’s a successful con artist may be the very thing that’s driving him insane.

No matter. Waller’s partner Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) could certainly care less if his compatriot and mentor has a few limp noodles in that psychotic mess he calls a head. Just as long as the money keeps rolling in, the scores keep getting bigger, Frank has no problem codling his pal on those increasingly annoying occasions when the screws in Roy’s noggin become more than a degree unhinged.

Problem is, the scores aren’t getting bigger and the pay outs are remaining rather miniscule; hard to make a nest egg that can wow the ladies and help you live the good life when the best you’re doing is fleecing little old ladies into buying fifty-dollar water filtration systems for three hundred bucks. Something has to change, because this young gun trying to learn the art of the grift under Roy’s tutelage is fast running out of patience.

But when Roy goes on one of his more monstrous binges of insanity, a door is open that just might lead the aging matchstick man into a normal life. Forced into a seeing a new psychiatrist, Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman), who actually makes him talk about his life and problems, Waller gets a opportunity to be the one thing he thought he lost out on 16-years earlier: to be a father.

With the doc’s assistance, Roy comes in contact with the child he never knew, the more than a bit wild Angela (Alison Lohman). Soon, this new dad is discovering that life can be more than going through the motions of a con, and a little mess now and then can be worth the hassle just to see a beaming smile cross the face of your adoring child. This new friendship allows Roy to loosen up, to see life anew, and maybe lead him to start thinking that there just might be more to living than he had bothered to imagine.

It also gets him to start thinking bigger than he has in ages. No stranger to the big graft, Waller had put the days of the huge score and all their frustrations far behind him. But when the obviously nefarious and stingy Chuck Frechette (Bruce McGill) – the man won’t even tip a waitress, let alone the valet – walks into his and Frank’s lives, the old juices start to flow through the talented con man’s veins. No more hard feelings and nightmares for the little old ladies he’s fleeced of their life savings; this is one creep who deserves to get taken.

Frank is jazzed by his partner’s newfound zeal. In fact, his excitement at finally scoring in a major operation has him salivating like a young pup in heat. But when Angela figures out what it is her dad does for a living, can the con survive a daughter’s vigor to get involved in the family business? For that matter, can Roy live with himself if he turns his daughter into just as much a criminal as he is? Questions, questions, but the mark is waiting, and Roy just can’t let a good grift die without trying to see it through.

On the surface, you look a Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men” and think it’s just going to be another run of the mill movie about con artists. Instead, what the director delivers is a finely tuned character piece about a man walking through life half dead, suddenly waking to vibrancy as he sees the world through the energy and passion of another’s loving gaze. It’s about fathers and daughters, friends and partners; but most of all it is a movie about reaching out and making something of life, and that the little things don’t necessarily have to be clean to be perfect. It’s also one of the year’s truest and most heartfelt finds.

It’s wonderful to see Cage alive as an actor once again. I was worried that after his Oscar-winning turn in “Leaving Las Vegas” and a giddily loopy performance in “Face/Off” we were going to lose the fabulously talented thespian to a turgid string of emotionless action films and lifeless melodramas. His resurrection, though, began last year with his splendidly loony and endearing work in Spike Jonze’s “Adaptation,” a dual-performance that earned the actor his second Oscar nod.

He cements his comeback here, with an exhibition of such vitality and loopy brilliance that all memories of snooze-worthy work in films like “City of Angels” and “8mm” is left at the door. Gone is the actor who made us sit through messes like “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin,” in his place is the beatified genius who gifted the screen with brazenly loony and emotional work in pictures like “Vampire’s Kiss” and “Moonstruck.” More than just tics and hurried mannerisms, Cage’s Roy is a percolating time bomb of emotional baggage, the actor delving deep inside the tortured grifter’s inner demons. Watching him come to life as he slowly gets to know the child he never thought he’d meet is one of the purest pleasures to be found at the theater this year. Cage simply astonishes as he peels away at a tortured psyche, revealing layers even Roy didn’t know were there.

It helps that he has such a fluidly beauteous chemistry with the gifted Lohman. After winning justifiable acclaim for last year’s “White Oleander,” the young actress shows once again just exactly why she’s considered one of the finest young faces of her generation. Wise beyond her years and maybe just a bit more knowing of her father’s lifestyle than she lets on, Lohman nails all of Angela’s quirks. At once just like the girl down the street you were sort of afraid to talk to because she had an allure of danger hovering about her, the actress also conveys a homespun innocence that’s pleasantly beguiling. And while that image might just be masking a different shade of truth, Lohman wins us over so much that any hint of danger never really registers until it’s almost too late.

Also a great joy is the gifted Rockwell. So good last year in George Clooney’s otherwise disappointing “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” the actor has been on my watch list ever since John Dugan’s “Lawn Dogs” almost a decade past. Sucking on a cigarette like it’s an inhaler and spewing out dialogue like a meth addict readies to dive into housework, Rockwell and Cage jive together like that big pink bunny and his gold-rimmed batteries. Veteran character actors Altman and McGill also shine, while Shelia Kelly (“Nurse Betty”) makes an indelible impression in an almost silent role.

Scott, taking a break from the big-budget spectacle of movies like “Black Hawk Down,” “Hannibal” and “Gladiator,” directs with a sprightly fluidity he hasn’t displayed in eons. The smaller scale suits him, and while the movie is full of the director’s trademark visual brilliance – kudos to cinematographer John Mathieson (“Gladiator”) – it has far more emotional resilience and fortitude than Scott is normally known for. This is a movie that relies completely on the evolving nature of its characters to get by and the filmmaker does not let his actors down for a second, allowing them the freedom to create complex beings that bleed reality.

Technically, like almost every film touched by the director, “Matchstick Men” is a wonder. Hans Zimmer’s (“The Thin Red Line”) playful score shows a slight of hand that fits the proceedings like a glove, while Dody Dorn’s (“Insomnia”) assured editing gives things an ebb and flow that borders on luminosity. But then, it’s possible to give a shout out to almost everyone involved with the production here, the values and solid craftsmanship on display so unfortunately unusual in a major studio film in this day and age.

Finally, there is Nicholas and Ted Griffin’s (“Ocean’s 11) assured screenplay. Working from a novel by Eric Garcia, the duo craft one of the best character studies to hit the screen in ages. The movie moves assuredly from scene to scene, their characters performing with a natural intelligence and grace. Sure, the big con that whips the film around into an unforeseen delirium could have been undone by a single phone call to the ex-wife, but that’s a small flaw when considering how solid everything else about the brother’s work is. Beautifully constructed, with dialogue so meaty it melts in the actor’s mouths, this is one of the best script-to-screen translations to show up this year.

As fall kicks-off and the movies make the turn into Oscar-worthy seriousness, “Matchstick Men” scores a touchdown. I just hope the Academy is watching.

Rating: êêê1/2   (out of 4)

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