Matchstick Men

by John

Ridley Scott is a director who frequently reinvents himself in terms of content, but his stylistic signature remains constant in each film he directs. His better-known films always prove to be visually dynamic and viscerally compelling. Even flat-out disappointments like Legend and Hannibal are interesting to look at, even if the script is lacking in coherence, as was the case for those two films.

It's always refreshing to see Scott take a break from more elaborate, expensive-looking films such as Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Kingdom of Heaven, and instead direct a light, low-key movie like Matchstick Men. His stylistic flourishes dominate the film, but unfortunately he trips himself up by allowing to include a twist ending that's so out of left field that the film's premise is completely undermined, losing ground it could never hope to recover.

Matchstick Men revolves around Roy, enjoyably played by Nicolas Cage. Roy is a con man (or "con artist," he clarifies in one scene) whose various neuroses make him almost certifiable: agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and what appears to be a variation of Tourette's syndrome. Naturally, his partner in crime Frankie, played with ease by Sam Rockwell, couldn't be any more different: smart-alecky, laid-back and messy. The two operate a small but successful con business in L.A., in which they hone in on unsuspecting strangers and rob them of sizable amounts of dough.

When Roy, whose various neuroses are kept in check by medications, discovers the doctor supplying his illegal stash of pills has fled L.A., he panics for a few days, then eventually enlists the help of Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman), a therapist who complains of back pains. Through him comes a very unexpected turn in his life, as he meets his long-lost teenage daughter Angela (Alison Lohman). Summoning the will for decent fatherhood now adds another layer to his increasingly complicated life.

From there, an enjoyable and occasionally heartwarming story unfolds that explores the relationships Roy has with Frankie and especially his daughter Angela. There is genuine emotion in the scenes where Roy takes his first stabs at parenting, and there is genuine humor in which his life as a con artist and life as a fledgling parent intersect, for better and for worse. One of the main reasons why this film entertains comes from Cage's highly entertaining performance. He is in both top comedic and dramatic form, fitting his talents perfectly to the film's many tones, careful not to add too much weight to the proceedings.

Not surprisingly, Scott easily makes what would've been a visually plain character-driven story into yet another film that is simply beautiful to look at it. Drained, crystal-clear colors and picturesque shots both reflect the contradiction of Roy's phobic, obsessive persona living a classy life as a criminal in the idyllic Los Angeles suburbs.

Unfortunately, a dramatic shift in tone towards the end of the film is distracting. The film is mostly comedic with touches of drama, but when Roy gets mixed up with one of his crooked clients, the resulting chaos is too dark for what has come before it. This hiccup pales in comparison to the film's highly problematic twist ending, which is so utterly awkward and poorly explained that it causes the overall storyline to lapse into contrived incoherence. The story was functioning perfectly as light, pleasant father-daughter dramatic comedy until this development shows up. The enjoyment of the film is spoiled, and we are left to see the screenplay attempt to wrap things up, but it's obvious that nothing could explain away such a strongly deus ex machina moment.

Matchstick Men comes very close to being another one of Ridley Scott's artistic successes, but the bitter taste of trying to swallow inept story structure is too strong here to ignore.