Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Nicolas Cage | ... | Roy Waller | |
Sam Rockwell | ... | Frank Mercer | |
Alison Lohman | ... | Angela | |
Bruce Altman | ... | Dr. Klein | |
Bruce McGill | ... | Chuck Frechette | |
Jenny O'Hara | ... | Mrs. Schaffer | |
Steve Eastin | ... | Mr. Schaffer | |
Beth Grant | ... | Laundry Lady | |
Sheila Kelley | ... | Kathy | |
Fran Kranz | ... | Slacker Boyfriend | |
Tim Kelleher | ... | Bishop | |
Nigel Gibbs | ... | Holt | |
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Bill Saito | ... | Pharmacist #1 |
Tim Maculan | ... | Pharmacist #2 | |
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Stoney Westmoreland | ... | Man in Line |
Meet Roy and Frank, a couple of professional small-time con artists. What Roy, a veteran of the grift, and Frank, his ambitious protégé, are swindling these days are "water filtration systems," bargain-basement water filters bought by unsuspecting people who pay ten times their value in order to win bogus prizes like cars, jewelry and overseas vacations--which they never collect. These scams net the flim-flam men a few hundred here, another thousand there, which eventually adds up to a lucrative partnership. Roy's private life, however, is not so successful. An obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe with no personal relationships to call his own, Roy is barely hanging on to his wits, and when his idiosyncrasies begin to threaten his criminal productivity he's forced to seek the help of a psychoanalyst just to keep him in working order. While Roy is looking for a quick fix, his therapy begets more than he bargained for: the revelation that he has a teenage daughter--a child whose existence he... Written by Sujit R. Varma
I just happened to come across this movie while it was showing on TV, and I decided to actually sit down and watch it, even though it is a Nicolas Cage movie. And having seen it now, I must admit that I was more than pleasantly surprised with it.
This was, hand on Heart, actually the best of all Nicolas Cage movies that I have seen so far. Why? Well, because of the movie's riveting storyline, but more importantly because Nicolas Cage delivered the best performance of his entire career in "Matchstick Men".
The storyline in "Matchstick Men" is gripping, interesting and fast paced. More importantly, though, there are some nice change of events and plot twists along the way. I didn't see those surprise twists coming before they were actually revealed on the screen, and that kind of non-predictability is good.
The acting in the movie was really good and helped further the movie quite nicely. Especially Nicolas Cage was in his ace corner here with this particular oddball character. But also Ram Rockwell and Alison Lohman were delivering good performances.
"Matchstick Men" is a very interesting movie that is quite good and should be seen, even if you, like me, are not particularly much of a Nicolas Cage fan.