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Matchstick Men film review
MATCHSTICK MEN
Running time: 116 mins
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohmann, Bruce McGill, Bruce Altman
If you're going to Matchstick Men expecting a biopic on how painter LS Lowry put together his detailed depictions of Northern townsfolk, you'll be disappointed. Matchstick Men is the slang term given to conmen and scam artists. Conmen like Roy, (Nicholas Cage), a man who, despite suffering from an obsessive compulsive disorder and agoraphobia, has perfected the art of the scam. Together with partner in crime Frank, (Sam Rockwell), Roy has tricked everyone from pensioners to astute businessmen into parting with their cash. Roy and Frank are in the middle of setting up their most elaborate and lucrative scam yet when Roy's 14-year-old daughter Angela unexpectedly turns up on his doorstep.
Now Roy suffers a parenting dilemna as his daughter, (played with requisite teenage glee by the impressive Alison Lohmann), in awe of daddy's chosen profession, becomes eager to be included in the scams. Add the fact that Roy has also run out of his illegally prescribed pills to treat his disorder and Houston, we have a problem. But are Roy's facial ticks and excessive mannerisms a result of genuine mental instablility or a crisis of conscience at his chosen profession? That's what Roy's shrink is eager to find out and to an extent, the film itself.
Visually this somewhat claustrophic film has none of the epic sweep usually associated with director Ridley (Alien, Bladerunner, Gladiator) Scott who describes it as a 'comedic character study'. And although the film steers clear of trivialising OCD and the comedic quirks are detailed, (Roy ceases to function if guests wear their shoes inside his house and he baulks when he discovers two fallen leaves in his swimming pool), the laughs never really get started. The film veers between slick double twist thriller and the mawkish sentimentality in the relationship between Roy and his daughter. Hey wouldn't you know it? The appearance of a little girl makes Roy question his profession. Gosh. She's bringing out the better person in him.
Nicolas Cage does a fine job of portraying a man constrained by his own obsessiveness and guilty conscience but is unable to play the role as straight-out comedy for fear of upsetting genuine OCD sufferers. He's stuck between a Rockwell and a hard place if you like. Rockwell himself acquits himself superbly, bringing a verve and spark to the scenes he appears in with Cage, while Alison Lohmann also brings a genuine sense of the ingenue to her role. But you're left feeling unsatisfied and uninvolved with the characters.
Perhaps the ultimate con about the film is that it tries to make you care about worthless characters who spend their time cheating people out of their hard-earned dosh.
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