| Matchstick Men Review İreel-reviews.net Rated PG 13 Running time 120 minutes Directed by Ridley Scott Starring Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman, Bruce McGill, Brute Altman If one listens to the buzz surrounding Matchstick Men, one will be expecting Oscar nominations. It's possible. If it happens they will be undeserved. Matchstick Men is an engaging, often funny, and well paced movie. The end. Ridiculous claims that Cage is stretching himself to any vast degree are just that: ridiculous. We have seen this performance before, in fact we have seen it better done. The title role, Roy, played by Cage, borrows very heavily from both his own neurotic initiation in last year's wonderful Adaptation and Jack Nicholson's OCD curmudgeon in As Good As It Gets. The opening scene, in fact, echoes the Nicholson performance so strongly it was rather glaring. The actual parts differ, of course, Jack was playing a nasty and obsessive compulsive homophobic writer who falls in romantic love. Cage is playing a gifted con-man with ticks, obsessive compulsive repetition fetishes, who falls in paternal love with a long lost daughter... or so it seems. There is a "big reveal" that masquerades as a twist that anyone with an IQ over 115 will see coming about 15 minutes in. This is a pet peeve of mine, so I will let it go. You're welcome. The performances here ARE good. Cage overdoes the jerky-tick thing, but not so much that it's unforgivable. Alison Lohman shines, and eventually somebody is going to give this kid a script that actually showcases her talent. Sam Rockwell makes every frame of this movie he inhabits better. Rockwell is fast becoming one of my favorite actors. But the plot is very typical of a flim-flam movie. The relationships, while quite well drawn, don't move through unchartered territory. The big twist is as glaring to anyone who cares to look as a neon billboard. While I did laugh, did enjoy the performances, and didn't hate Matchstick Men, it falls victim to its own hype in short order. This is, sad to say, a mediocre film. It simply doesn't have the script to be more. An unfortunate waste of genuine talent and costly PR, it ultimately falls just this side of flat. As such, I would recommend waiting for the DVD release. |