I am not a Nicholas Cage fan. I find that this man has made entirely too many films and therefore all of his performances seem to meld together to the point where it doesn't matter if he is playing an alcoholic deadbeat, a policeman, or motorcycle superhero that is an on-fire skeleton, he is basically playing the same role in all of them.
Because of this impression I have of the man, I tend to enter his films with very low expectations and I really only decided to watch this one because of the presence of Sam Rockwell, who I think is one of the best actors alive today.
[src](https://psy317farah.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/matchstick_man-004.jpg?w=584)Nick plays the role of Roy Waller who is a con man in Los Angeles who suffers from both Tourette's and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He runs a series of cons all over the place along with his partner and "trainee" Frank (Sam Rockwell.)
One day during a con Roy has a near violent panic attack during the con-job and Frank suggests he see a friend of his who is a psychiatrist. Upon speaking to the shrink, Roy finds out that he has a 14 year old daughter with his ex-wife, who he has had not contact with since their divorce. Due to this information given by the doctor, Roy ends up meeting his daughter and quickly slips into a parental role that he quite enjoys.
[src](https://www.seeing-stars.com/Locations/Matchstick%20Men/Diner.jpg)During his nurturing of this new relationship, Roy finds out that he has fewer problems with his disorders when his daughter is around and he starts to not need his medication. He also confides in her and reveals that he is a confidence man, and reluctantly starts to teach her the tools of the trade. On one particular con he, due to time-constraints, has to include his daughter in the con, and things go terribly wrong.
I'm going to be intentionally vague from this point forward because it would give away crucial plot twists otherwise. Let's just say that because of this one misstep and the fact that he broke his own rules by confiding in his daughter that the very particular way of life that he enjoys and all the rules that are in it, start to unravel in a less than desirable way. His life is turned upside down in a bad way by the very thing that appeared to be improving it.
Some people have said they could see the ending coming from a long way off, I couldn't see all of it although one aspect of it is telegraphed by a single sentence of advice that he utters to his daughter during one of their training sessions that in my mind, should have been left out of the dialogue altogether. From the moment that he speaks that one sentence in the car, there is something about how much importance is placed on this one sentence that indicates that what he is describing is exactly what is going to happen later...and it does.
This is NOT a new film as it was originally released in 2003. It a recent addition to the Netflix library where I live though. I had never seen it until this year and one thing that stood out to me is that even though it is 17 years later, Nick today looks the same age as he did in this film.
While the movie mostly got positive reviews including a rare 4 our of 4 from Roger Ebert, the film under-performed at the box office and barely made back its $65 million budget. After marketing costs were factored in, it probably ended up losing money.
Should I watch it?
It is one of the better movies I have seen in a while and that is a true rarity for the normal garbage that Cage is involved in. This movie is one of the few in existence that I think can at least somewhat justify the fame and wealth that Nick has managed to acquire over the past 30 years.
