Matchstick Men (2003) : Don’t Let Your Guard Down [Mike’s Review]
Today on Cage Club we get a dose of our own medicine with Matchstick Men. Matchstick Man, film flam man, loser. Call it what you will but Nic Cage is back within’ the crooked world of con artists and grifters, this time with much better results than in Deadfall. Although his character in Deadfall was sublime, Nic Cage was pretty much the only thing that kept that movie going. All the grifting and the long con that didn’t really work in Deadfall does feel like it works for me in Matchstick Men. It may have something to do with the strength of the talent and resources involved in the making of this movie compared to the micro-budget family affair that was Deadfall.
The movie stars Cage as Roy Waller, an extremely good Confidence Man or Con Artists for short. He can talk anyone int doing anything, on a good day. The thing about Roy is that he suffers from extreme O.C.D. He has extreme ticks and must repeat certain actions like opening a door three times, overtime he opens one. It gets to the point that it starts to effect his making a living as well as his relationship with his protege, or assistant, Frank played by Sam Rockwell. Roy starts seeing a therapist that wants to get to the source of Roy’s O.C.D. when it’s revealed he may have a Daughter.
Roy tries to connect with the offspring he never knew he had, a fourteen year old girl named Angela. The two hit it off and Roy even trains her as an accomplice, bonding over the con artist lifestyle as well as forging a real father daughter bond. Meanwhile Roy and Frank are running a long con on some poor mark and the daughter situation is complicating matters between Roy and Frank.
Roy tries to call it all off with Angela and tells her he can’t be a Dad and a criminal at the same time, that it’s one or the other. It’s then that an altercation at Roy;s house occurs to throw everything out of order. The mark that Roy and Frank were “long conning” catches up to them and demands his money back when Angela shoots him dead. Roy tells Frank to get her away and that he’ll take the blame but is knocked unconscious before he can clean up the murder. He wakes up in a hospital changed to a bed and asks the cops if he can talk to his shrink then he’ll do anything they ask. He tells his shrink the code to his bank account and says to give it to Angela so she can escape. A while later, Roy wakes up alone in the room and discovers that everything was a ruse, that he was the mark that Frank was running a long con on the whole time. His partner set him up. Everyone from the shrink to his daughter were in on the entire scam.
I must say that I did see the the twist coming from the start, but felt it would actually add to the replay value if I had not caught on. In the end, Roy gets a dose of his own medicine and goes legit as a carpet salesman. His O.C.D. seems cured and his fake shrink seemed to be right, Roy was suffering from his con artist existence and his pent up shame or compassion for the folks he robbed manifested as his O.C.D. He has no more ticks and even lives with the check out girl who is pregnant. While Roy was sent through the ringer, it was a forced change that resulted in him becoming a more complete and happy person.
I really loved Cage in this movie. His performance was very physical and intense at times when he was in heavy O.C.D. mode. It’s never played for laughs and added a real tragic twist to a character I was not predisposed to like, being a criminal who steals money from old ladies after all. But to suffer from an uncontrollable affliction os a good way to gain empathy for a guy with poor morals and criminal tendencies. Director Ridley Scott did a great job with the from and editing to give a sense of Roy’s state of mind when he was having an attack. It sometimes seemed as thought the jump cuts indicated when the film itself was suffering from ticks or effects of a disorder like Roy.
I really enjoyed this movie and at times it reminded me of my favorite Con voice, Paper Moon. That film is about a Father and Daughter team of grifters in the 30’s played by real life Father and daughter, Ryan and Tatum O’Neil. The relationship is different but there are similar themes about making a family business out of a life of crime. I felt a certain amount of homage as well as a great deal of originality in the way the dynamic of a father daughter criminal relationship plays out.
Next on the platter we re-team with producer Jerry Bruckheimer for an all out American scavenger hunt. Get ready to experience Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible and the American Revolution all rolled into one. It’s History gone amok as we steal the Declaration of Independence when we watch “National Treasure”.
Mike
@the_mikestir
