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The driving force around “Matchstick Men” is the partnership of two con men, quirky Roy (Nicolas Cage) and shifty Frankie (Sam Rockwell). Roy has an obsessive-compulsive disorder that makes it difficult for him to function, let alone con people. Although he’s the protégé, it’s up to Frankie to help Roy maintain his loose grasp on sanity.
When Roy's erratic behavior threaten to derail his criminal activities, Frankie is forced to send him to a therapist, Dr. Klein (Bruce Altman). Klein discovers that Roy left his ex-wife when she was pregnant with their child and hasn’t been the same since. Roy lets Klein convince him that he should track down the child, and soon finds himself face to face with Angela (Allison Lohman) a spirited 14-year-old. Suddenly Roy has the added pressure of trying to appear as a semi-responsible father.
On top of all this, Frankie and Roy are attempting to con Frechette (Bruce McGill), a man aspiring to turn a profit by laundering large sums of British money that Roy and Frank have on hand. Complications arise as Angela’s presence takes away from Roy’s abilities.
Rockwell, Lohman, McGill and Altman are all perfectly cast. The amazingly cute Lohman is particularly effective. (Don’t feel dirty for finding her attractive in that forbidden Olsen twins way, she’s actually 24). She is able to play a 14-year-old with all the cautious love and vulnerability that the role requires.
Most audiences will be too caught up in the story’s swindles and emotional turns to see the final twist coming. Instead, they’ll enjoy Cage's over the top performance as well as the deft way the movie draws out Roy's relationships with his partner, and daughter.
Director Ripley Scott, the auteur of "Alien”, "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down," is one of the great visual stylists in film today. He has a remarkable sense of shape and design, even when his subjects seem unremarkable or plain. That being said the movie has a very professional feel and about an hour into it I was ready to hail the film as a near masterpiece.
But one of the shortcomings is that Scott and screenwriter Nicholas Griffin have tacked on an unnecessary ending that attempts to tenderize the story with a year-later epilogue that's as improbable as it is unsatisfying. There's no reason for it, except for the simplistic notion that film audiences will not settle for anything less than a happy ending.
Overall this is the rare caper story that is driven more by characters and less by formulas and situations. A very good film that’s final act is somewhat predictable until it’s twist leaves you feeling unsatisfied. (Ok you want an analogy: Stallone’s speech after he beats Drago in “Rocky IV.” Would have been better without it.) |
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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