I love this movie so much

Touches You

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

No spoliers here, nothing revealed, just my opinion that once again Nicolas Cage lifts a flick way up to enviable levels with his brilliant acting and interpretation of a character. Directors must find him so refreshing to hande. This is a clever film, a pleasure to watch, engrossin, entertaining, with smart dialogue. 8/10. This is a winner ~ watch it!

Throughout the whole movie, I was looking for that long con, it was obviously inevitable; but what Ridley did with a certain character, was just, an artistic con to the viewers.This film is one of those that really shouldn't be reviewed with the inclusion of spoilers, because going in unaware is the best part.Ridley, Cage, Rockwell and Lohman, I applaud you all. Very nicely done. Everybody just did what they do excellently.7.7/10 that conned a rounding off of 8/10. I guess, I'm giving it the 8, it's not taking it, so...

This might be the answer to all of Nicholas Cage's detractors who dislike his overacting and bursts of madness. He seems the perfect actor to play Roy, a conman who has a severe case of OCD. Cage adds to his portrayals a strong range of facial tics, stutters and uncontrollable bursts of emotions - sometimes matching those of his newly discovered teenage daughter. More immediately striking is the visual techniques that Ridley Scott employs to heighten his sense of paraonia and loss of control - speeding up and slowing down footage, rewinding the surrounding events, chopping up the soundtrack. When Roy goes through his usual obsessive ritual of counting the locks on his door, Ridley responds with 3 successive cuts to show how gingerly he screens the people entering his home. As he struggles to find more placebo pills on the phone, the cuts jump from side to side erratically as his anxiety builds. And when he wakes up after a nasty hit to the head, the frame is flattened and compressed to suit his POV. He and his partner Roy are smooth operators. They slip seamlessly into their roles over the phone; able to imagine and fabricate whole offices and businesses and co-workers with only their words. I am reminded of similar ability in the characters of Glengarry Glen Ross. Angela is also a great little actress, although we do not know it yet - moody, depressive, upbeat and teasing all rolled into one. The relationship is sweet beyond the long term implications of Roy's career, so naturally we begin to root for them to succeed. Roy shares this new joy of his with the targeted victim for the pigeon drop, exchanging those chuckling anecdotes that a loving father would. But we do begin to question whether he pulls it off so well because he is a veteran conman, or if it is because he is truly warming up to Angela. .Many have expressed discontentment at the rather tame ending. Perhaps they'd like Roy to unload on Angela and yell at her for conning him like hat. I think it's perfectly wrapped up; anger won't change what already happened, and he realises that he is now at peace with his ordinary life and happier than he ever was as a conman. That's about as far as the screenplay really reaches for. Besides the plot holes and conveniences that I'm sure everyone will be quick to point out, it's a bit presumptuous to simply assume that with a more stable life that his OCD would suddenly be resolved like some neat plot point. And again with the supermarket cashier, who doesn't really add anything of note except to symbolise his now happier life. But apart from all this, it's an enjoyable enough film.

There is this notion Matchstick Men is a minor curiosity in Ridley Scott's filmography, some little comedy about a con artist bonding with his daughter... for me it's one of his best movies since the incredible starting streak (The Duellists, Alien, Blade Runner). A director with an amazing eye for visuals, Scott can shoot very pretty pictures but has no quality control when it comes to choosing scripts, with often disheartening results.Matchstick Men, however, has a strong screenplay, with vivid characters and sharp dialogues. Cage, who can be a calamity in the wrong part (The Wicker Man), is smartly cast as a phobic weirdo, which allows him to unleash one of his amiably over-the-top performances. In the right role he can still knock it out of the park - I am thinking of a moment near the end, where his heartbroken sobs morph into a bark of hysterical laughter. Alison Lohman is perfect in a tricky role; Sam Rockwell and Bruce McGill give solid supporting turns.8/10