Matchstick Men

Plot synopsis:
Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) is a con artist residing in Los Angeles with severe tourette's syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Alongside his partner and protégé Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell), Roy operates a fake lottery, selling overpriced water filtration systems to unsuspecting customers. After Roy experiences a violent panic attack, Frank suggests he see a psychiatrist, Dr. Harris Klein (Bruce Altman).
Klein provides Roy with medication, and in therapy has Roy recall his past relationship with his ex-wife, Heather (Melora Walters), who was pregnant during the time of the divorce. At Roy's behest, Klein informs Roy that he called Heather and found out that Roy has a 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman). Roy and Angela meet, and her youthful energy rejuvenates him. Roy thus agrees to work with Frank on a long-term con: their target is Chuck Frechette (Bruce McGill), an arrogant businessman whom the pair plans to con with the Pigeon drop.
One night, Angela unexpectedly arrives at Roy's house, saying that she has had a fight with her mother, and decides to stay for the weekend before returning to school. She explores his belongings and causes him to rethink his life, which he mentions during therapy with Klein. Angela returns home late one night, leading to an argument between the two. During dinner, Roy admits that he is a con artist and reluctantly agrees to teach Angela a con. The two of them go to a local laundromat and con an older woman into believing she has won the lottery, and she shares half of her expected winnings with Angela; however, Roy then forces Angela to return the money.
Roy goes bowling with Angela but is interrupted when Frank reveals that Chuck's flight to the Caymans has been updated to that day instead of Friday as planned. With little time left, Roy reluctantly chooses to let Angela play the part of distracting Chuck midway through the con; however, after the con is finished, Chuck realizes what has happened and chases the two into a parking garage before they escape. Roy then learns that Angela was arrested a year earlier, and asks that she stop calling him.
Without Angela, Roy's myriad phobias resurface, and during another panic attack, he ultimately learns that the medication given to him by Klein is a placebo, proving that he doesn't actually need his pills to be happy. Roy proclaims that he needs Angela in his life but that he would have to change his lifestyle, much to Frank's disappointment. Roy and Angela return from dinner one night to find Chuck waiting for them with a gun, alongside a badly beaten Frank. Angela shoots Chuck and Roy sends her off with Frank into hiding until the matter can be sorted out. As Roy prepares to take care of Chuck's body, Chuck suddenly springs to life and knocks Roy unconscious.
Roy awakens in a hospital, where the police inform him that Chuck eventually died from the gunshot and Frank and Angela have disappeared. Klein appears and Roy gives him the password to his bank account, ordering him to give the money to Angela when she is found. Later, Roy awakens to find that the "police" have disappeared, his "hospital room" is actually a freight container on the roof of a parking garage, "Dr. Klein's" office is vacant, and essentially all of his money has been taken. As he begins to realize that Frank pulled a con on him, Roy drives over to Heather's (whom he hasn't seen for years) looking for Angela. While speaking with Heather, Roy learns the truth: Heather miscarried their child. There is no "Angela": the young girl he thought was his child was actually Frank's accomplice.
One year later, Roy has become a salesman at a local carpet store, which Angela and her boyfriend one day wander into. Roy confronts Angela but ultimately forgives her, realizing that he is much happier as an honest man. Angela reveals that she did not receive her fair share of the cut from Frank, and that it was the only con she ever pulled. Angela and her boyfriend depart and Roy returns home to his new wife Kathy, who is now pregnant with his child.

Tags: comedy, murder, dramatic, psychedelic, romantic, suspenseful

Review:
Ridley Scott and Nicolas Cage deliver some of their best and most intelligent work in a few years, even if Matchstick Men is not quite either's great contribution for this year in film.
Nicolas Cage, who plays Roy, part anxious/obsessive compulsive, part sly con man, and part father to a daughter he never knew he had, is a main reason to see this movie.
His performance is on par with someone like Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets for watch-ability of a truly sad lifestyle, and while Nicholson's performance was and still is funnier and more charming, Cage gets so into his character, the little mannerisms that pop up more often than expected, that we feel for the guy even as his eyes get twitchy and goes over certain spots in his house like a detective.
Add then an outgoing, occasionally sneaky daughter (Alison Lohman in a performance that skillfully balances sweetness and irritability, sorrow and playfulness in a teenage girl) to the mix, along with a protégé-cum-partner (a cool Sam Rockwell) who has a love/loathe relationship Roy, and there's the map work for an interesting, if here and there predictable, drama/comedy/crime film.
It is a nice and welcome change of pace for a master director, as CMIYC was to Spielberg.The film stars Nicholas Cage, who is making up for some lost years thanks to his role here and of course in Adaptation.
Anyone who thinks director Ridley Scott doesn't have a gentler side (after all, GLADIATOR, HANNIBAL, and BLACK HAWK DOWN are not exactly 'touchy-feely' movies) may be in for a surprise with his latest, MATCHSTICK MEN.
The story of extremely neurotic but brilliant con man Nicolas Cage ("I'm not a criminal," he explains to his shrink, "Criminals hurt people; I don't..."), discovering a daughter he never knew he had (Alison Lohman, of WHITE OLEANDER), on the eve of a big 'Sting', offers as much emphasis on his acceptance of his new parental responsibilities as on the caper he and his partner (the always watchable Sam Rockwell) are pulling off.
Cage plays the role brilliantly, making his quirky character sympathetic, and Scott proves again why he is one of Hollywood's premier directors.The success of a film like this depends on the chemistry between the leads, and Cage and Lohman are terrific together.
In one scene, he attempts to prove to her that he can cook by preparing a spaghetti dinner...after one bite, the scene shifts to the arrival of the Domino's delivery boy!Ultimately, however, MATCHSTICK MEN is a tale of 'The Con', and Cage and Rockwell's 'Sting' against 'fat cat' Bruce McGill, while appearing deceptively simple, has a series of twists and turns, leading to a climax that is both stunning and unexpected.
Roy, on the other hand, is turning into a complete nut, and after going to a recommended psychiatrist, he musters up the courage to confront his 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman), who is eager to escape her controlling mother and check out her long-lost big pop.The film has a lot of different stories going on -- the worry-wart who learns to put aside his nervous ticks, the long-lost father who reunites with his daughter, and the con artist who tries to give it up for a normal life.
Who would'a thunk it?Sam Rockwell ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind") continues to impress, while Alison Lohman (a 20-something actress playing a teenager) shines and convincingly portrays exactly what the character needs.Ridley Scott ("Alien"), the infamous British director, uses some great camera techniques here -- filmed in a blue shade with lots of different camera flashes, he subtly forces the audience into Roy's head, especially during sequences when Roy is having little breakdowns and the people and objects around him start moving at warp-speed.I'll admit that I'm a big fan of con man movies because I find them amusing.
So, I'll just give a quick little synopsis of the plot, but really if you've seen any trailers for the movie, you know the plot pretty well.Nicolas Cage plays Roy, a con man (or, as he likes to say, a Con Artist!) who has a lot of problems.
I'm not sure if it was suppose to be played up for laughs or not, the tone was kind of hard to tell, but Roy spend the next day and a half cleaning his house, his ticks got worst and well it made me feel kind of bad for him.His partner Frank, played by Sam Rockwell provides him with the number for another psychologist who can help.
Later that night he gets a call from him and finds out that he has a daughter who wants to meet him.That's as far as I'll go with the plot because the movie really picks up from there as he bonds with his new daughter and sets up a really complex and dangerous con.Like I said, Nick Cage is great in the movie, but I also want to point out that his daughter,  Angela (played by Alison Lohman) was just fantastic to watch.
It was just really funny.Matchstick Men isn't a fast paced movie, it's more of a character study between Roy and Angela and how she changes his life and makes him reprioritizes his values and the way he runs his life..
Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) and Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) are con artists and the movie opens with showing how they collect some money.
All of this delivered in a very free-flowing and vibrant way, much like the majority of Scott's work.At its core the film is about con man Roy Waller who suffers from serve OCD which become even worse once he loses his pills, shown in a scene that is both funny and sad where he spends a day cleaning his entire house.
I also think that Sam Rockwell (who I swear has never put in a subpar performance) deserves some praise for his role as Roy's confident business partner.It is tough to reveal much more about the plot without giving away pieces of information that might spoil its ending.
I think the film would have been even stronger had it avoided said twist all together.Matchstick Men ends up feeling exactly like what Ridley Scott wants it to be.
But also Ram Rockwell and Alison Lohman were delivering good performances."Matchstick Men" is a very interesting movie that is quite good and should be seen, even if you, like me, are not particularly much of a Nicolas Cage fan..
Sam Rockwell does nice work as Frank, his mysterious protégé, and Alison Lohman is also terrific as the young girl who finds her way into Roy's life when she tells him she is his daughter.When looking to rent this, I was kind of excited because it looked to me like a Steven Soderbergh-type movie with plenty of twists and turns like the Ocean movies.
If you like con movies, stories about people with mental disorders, or you love the work of Nicolas Cage, Matchstick Men works on all those levels..
Sam Rockwell lends a convincing performance as Roy's partner, Frank, and Allison Lohman is equally entertaining as Angela, the daughter, who winds up wanting to be too much like her dad.
By the combination of seeing the advertising and reading reviews, it was clear that the film was at least partially trying to cross Ocean's Eleven with some lovey-dovey family angle.But no, it was worse.The film starts out fairly strong, with a lot of camera tricks to emphasize Roy's (the main character, played by Nicholas Cage) obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Matchstick Men tells the story of con artist Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) and his protégé Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell).
The status quo of their work is disrupted when Angela (Alison Lohman), the daughter that Roy never knew he had, bumps into his life.Cage's performance as Roy is definitely the reason why you would want to watch this movie.
I gave it a 10 because it is the best movie I've seen this year, I saw Seabiscuit and Lost in Translation and liked both, but this movie was far better(in my opinion) not sure why it didn't win any awards.It was so well thought out and had lots of twists and turns and had me rooting for Nick Cages character in the end of the movie, I also appreciated the ending it didn't have to be tied up in a nice red bow like a lot of movies try to do.I kind of got the impression that return of the King won for the entire saga and not just the 3rd movie.
And watching Nicholas Cage, an actor with many ticks and mannerisms, play a man with obsessive compulsive behavior was just too much.All in all, there was nothing interesting in this film: predictable, weak and boring..
A con man meets his daughter, who complicates his life in "Matchstick Men," a 2003 film starring Nicholas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman, and directed by Ridley Scott.Cage plays an obsessive-compulsive con artist, Roy Waller, who works with a partner, Frank (Rockwell).
Angela and Roy take to one another, which leads to problems when Roy and Frank are working an important con.This is a really wonderful film with excellent performances by Cage, Rockwell, Lohman, Altman and Chuck Frechette as a con victim.
Roy Waller (Nicholas Cage) and Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) are two con artists.Roy is a man filled with problems.He has all sorts of phobias and compulsive behavior.His new shrink, Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman) tells him he has a 14-year old daughter.Roy looks up this girl, Angela (Alison Lohman).They become very close and Roy finds his fatherly feelings he thought never existed.Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men (2003) is a brilliant movie.It's especially great to watch Nick Cage work.You really start to care about the character with all his problems.Alison Lohman is a true find for the role of Angela.Sam Rockwell's great in his part.Bruce McGill does terrific job as Chuck Frechette.Everybody's just right for their parts.This is a fascinating crime drama that you really enjoy watching.And the twist in the end is something you really didn't expect..
I found "Matchstick Men" to be an enjoyable film, starring Nicolas Cage as an obsessive-compulsive con artist whose life is changed when his teenager daughter (Alison Lohman), whom he never knew existed, walks into his life.
Along the way Scott plays the audience in his own kind of con, and he pulls it off pretty well.Nicolas Cage plays Roy an obsessive compulsive grifter, who at the urging of his partner Frank, played by Sam Rockwell, visits a shrink who directs him to the now teenage daughter he left with his ex-wife.
With his partner in crime Frank (Sam Rockwell), at his side, a fourteen year old girl named Angie becomes the missing piece in his sad and confused life, that he never knew he needed or wanted.The story circles around a con that the two men are working on, and this young girl is in the picture now, for him to make some choices with which he is faced.I loved this film, and I've seen it twice now.
It's again, one of the better films, most people will have seen in a long time, and not only does Nick Cage give probably his best performance to date, in this, but Ridley Scott is a genius, and master at work with his photography, editing, and eye for wide angle shots.The imagination that went behind the story, screenplay and post production is very good, and I give it full credit for the job that they have accomplished.
Beside him, the actress who acts Angela (I can't remember her name) has no problem to put herself in a 14 year old teenager's place in spite of her age (she was 22 years old at the time!).So, "Matchstick Men" is a flick to watch for Nicols Cage but to forget in Ridley Scott's dense filmography..
Now both of these are actors I like, though I have to say that Sam Rockwell's career hasn't taken off like I hoped it would - I still think his best role was in Galaxy Quest - and they both carry the movie pretty well, especially Cage.The film is solid enough entertainment, but it is rather predictable, particularly towards the end.
There are many story lines for few characters, but they are all carefully sewn together by the master tailor Ridley Scott.As for acting, Nicholas Cage captures the inner turmoil of his character very well in the film, from the twitchy tics to the odd stuttering  he is a big mess, but has that inherent, effortless hero-quality when cast in protagonist roles.
At last Nick Cage had a good character for redemption for such bad roles in late years,Ridley provides a great plot with a disturb leading role which is the best of the picture,the whole sting stay in backdrop or in second plane,this kind of disorder is very usual nowadays,the behavior obsessive compulsive reach around 20% of population,and how it is great bring it a movie as shown in this one,great approach by Ridley Scott and magnificent acting by Cage!!Resume:First watch: 2018 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.
It has a fine screenplay and Scott brings a nice balance between comedic moments and the tenser moments and of course they way he brings the surprise element without making a mockery of the film is simply outstanding.Cage Roy is brilliant as Roy, the con artist who tries to be a better father after discovering his teen daughter.
I enjoy con men movies very much, but this is one of the worst and has very serious script problems: 1)  The big "twist" is way too predictable for any audience member that's actually paying attention and it's difficult to believe that Nicolas Cage, who is supposed to be very bright and good at what he does, would fall for it; 2)  Said big twist is a major miscalculation because it completely invalidates the only part of the movie that was actually working--the blossoming father daughter relationship;  3)  The attempt to wring a happy ending from the dark twists of the script's final act feels completely phony--in fact, if Nicolas Cage had turned into a werewolf at the end and eaten the rest of the cast it wouldn't have been any more implausible than what actually makes it to the screen.
While parts of the story are insanely contrived and hard to believe (like the fact that Roy doesn't call his ex-wife the entire time Angela is with him, especially when he comes home and she's gone), Matchstick Men is a really stylish and entertaining story of a unique form of con man.
After all, characters make a story, and this one has some good ones.In one of his best "crazy person" roles, Nicholas Cage does an incredible job portraying Roy, a con-artist with severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
The little tics and freak-outs Cage brings to this character make his disorder real to the audience.Sam Rockwell ends up portraying the same kind of character he always does in these types of films, but Alison Lohman ends up being the Yin to Cage's Yang with her role as Angela, Roy's 14-year old daughter.
I must confess that I was stunned to read that Ridley Scott directed this movie, because this director only minimally directs his actors, which makes the acting in "Matchstick Men" even more impressive.
Fun while it lasts, Matchstick Men certainly has its flaws, but its worth the watch if you are a fan of Cage or Rockwell.A neurotic con man and his partner are about to pull off a big job, until one of their daughters turns up.
But when you think about it, the ending begins to make sense.If you want a good, suspenseful, surprising movie with WONDERFUL acting, check out Matchstick Men.Two Thumbs up..
al., and my long-time personal favorite, House of Games, you will love Matchstick Men. Nicolas Cage gives his usual strong, slightly confused performance of a confidence man beset by nervous ticks and phobias whose world unravels when is 14-year old daughter from a failed marriage suddenly enters his life.
Director Ridley Scott adapts Eric Garcia's story of a quirky con artist (Nicolas Cage) whose relatively normal professional life is suddenly thrown off kilter by his introduction to his 14-year old daughter (Alison Lohman) and her desire to be a part of his criminal life.
As George Costanza would say, "Worlds are colliding!" (Following the story of the film is much of the fun, so that's all the plot you're getting.) The appeal of "Matchstick Men" is derived primarily from the appeal and solid work of its leads, Cage, Lohman, and Sam Rockwell, who is Cage's partner in crime.
The acting is very good, not only from the main actors Cage, Rockwell and a remarkable Lohman) but also from the supporting actors - I mention here just Altman, McGill and Kelley, but there are just no miscasts in this movie.I recommend taking your time to watch the DVD, whose Extra Features are very interesting - the elaborate 'Making of' and the commentary by director and script writers.8,5 out of 10..
The movie starts to feel like a good film of the relationship of a man and his daughter.
I am a big Fan of Nicholas Cage and havent really seen a bad Ridley Scott movie but I actually ended up switching this off half way through.
Nicholas Cage delivers another great performance in director Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men. Starring opposite Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman Cage plays Roy Waller, a con man, who discovers that he has a fourteen-year-old daughter.
Ridley Scott did an amazing job transfering this movie from the novel and delivers a wonderfully entertaining and enjoyable film.Nicholas Cage's performance of a man riddled with tics and phobias deserves high praise as does Alison Lohman for being able to pull off being a 14 yr old despite actually being 10 years older.