Matchstick Men2 And A Half Out Of 5Matchstick Men is a character driven dramatic thriller about a guy and his relationship with his daughter that is depicted from the scratch. The hidden cards up its sleeve is visible or easily predictable far before it even hits the screen but still it somehow manages to hold the audience in its own slow take. It is short on technical aspects like background score, art design, cinematography and editing. The camera work is decent and is captivating in its mediocre way but then it also never attempts to grow bigger than that, it's happy and delighted to be what it is. The adaptation by Nicholas and Ted Griffin is catchy and settles in quickly among the viewers with its gripping tactics that it uses every now and then. Ridley Scott; the director, holds on to its part and delivers what is anticipated from it, which is a nice execution of the script. The performance too is handled well by the protagonist Nicolas Cage and his supporting cast Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman who is equally good as the rest of the cast. Matchstick Men is as slim as it can get on terms of plot, drama, performance, execution, characters and its mundane textbook rituals that it won't let go off.

Matchstick men is a return to form for master filmmaker Ridley Scott. Although much lower key than his other films Matchstick men is witty, finely paced and well-acted. Nicholas Cage plays a con artist whose plans to pull off a heist are interrupted when his daughter comes to stay with him. Ably supported by Sam Rockwell this is one of those great comedies that defy expectation. Go see it asap.

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...

Matchstick Men tells the story of con artist Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) and his protégé Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell). The status quo of their work is disrupted when Angela (Alison Lohman), the daughter that Roy never knew he had, bumps into his life.Cage's performance as Roy is definitely the reason why you would want to watch this movie. He got very into character, a con artist with unique psychological traits where agoraphobia and OCD do not cover it all. Throughout the movie it's impossible not to feel for Roy when his eye twitches or whenever he has a nervous breakdown. This is most likely going to be the best obsessive-compulsive character performance you'll see in a while. Roy's organized and simple life is disrupted when a smart and outgoing daughter shows up, somewhat out of nowhere. Lohman's performance as Angela could be described as a unique balance between "lovable young lady with parent issues" and "sneaky little brat that wants things her way", resulting in a very solid performance (note that she was 24 at the time, 10 years older than her character). Frank, Rockwell's character, is an eager protégé trying to convince Roy into going for big hit, instead of the usual "simple is safe". Frank's passive-aggressive patience to deal with Roy's shenanigans adds a hint of comedy to the movie.The relationship between Roy and Angela actually remembers Leon, the Professional (1994) at some point. It's always refreshing to see small homages to certain movies – and this one by Scott and Cage is a refreshing, 9 year gap fill. Also, two other things should be mentioned. First, the small but decisive aspect that Roy always uses matchsticks to light his cigarettes, overlapping a character performance with the title. Second, it's based on a novel by Eric Garcia, with the same title as the movie.An overall brilliant performance from these three characters and starting plot would be more than enough for anyone to watch this piece. However, the plot twist at the end, even though it's not that predictable, could be disliked by many (me included). Still, it's a movie worth watching, and one that I would recommend given Cage's performance and character.