`Matchstick Men' is one of those movies that makes you realize why some actors have support. Up until watching this film I had been a `Cage-Hater', a guy who just couldn't wrap his head around all the critical support (granted, I saw this movie before watching `Adaptation' and since watching that film I've realized this man `can' act, he just chooses not to half the time). Here though Nicolas Cage gave me a brief glimpse of the man that everyone else sees. As con-artist Roy Waller, Cage gives us a brilliant performance.
My main problem with Cage has been his stiff natured acting, the fact that every time he speaks it feels as if he's reading a prompter card, and so I think that the fact that his character here suffers from a severe case of OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) helps a lot in that regard since he's supposed to sound stiff and unnatural.
Roy works with fellow con Frank (Sam Rockwell), the young hotshot protégé who has higher ambitions than Roy himself, and this is causing them to butt-heads a bit. The real drama though comes in the form of Angela (Alison Lohman), a young 14-year old who claims to be his daughter. At first Roy's put off and distant, but after Angela shows major interest in her fathers line of `work' they begin to bond by pulling small con-jobs together. Meanwhile Frank is getting more and more agitated with the new bond between father and daughter because it's causing a strain on a big job they have coming up.
Filled with twists and turns and an ending I never saw coming, `Matchstick Men' is the perfect kind of caper. It's got great acting from a cast I never knew had it in them and a great moral message that manifests itself as the film unravels. Alison Lohman is charming and natural and Sam Rockwell is the perfect side-kick, but the real shocker (at least to me) was the mere fact that Nicolas Cage steals the show from everyone!