There is sometimes nothing I love more than a good crime thriller, and normally heist or con films seem to take the position as some of the most entertaining films, as they rely on some very cheap but exciting thrills that doesn’t require too much from the audience except a little attention. It also helps if the film is a comedy, because these kinds of con-man films normally work a lot better if there is a sense of humor behind it. A film that I recently watched that I enjoyed tremendously was Matchstick Men, one of the better con-man films made for a while, and a hilariously twisted crime comedy that actually has quite a bit of heart driving the story, which is something very often missing from these kinds of crime films, which replace soul and meaning with over-the-top schemes. Matchstick Men stands out as a tremendously entertaining film that subverts expectations and forges itself as a great film from beginning to end.

Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) is a highly-successful con man who works alongside his partner, the over-zealous and upbeat Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell). They usually do small-time work in order to make money without committing anything too heinous that can lead them to long prison sentences. In his personal life, Roy suffers from Tourette’s Syndrome, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as possessing several irrational phobias. A visit to a psychiatrist leads Roy to his long-lost daughter Angela (Alison Lohman), who is an energetic and inquisitive 14-year-old who soon figures out her father’s line of work, and instead of recoiling in fear, she demands to get in on the business. Very soon, Roy is teaching her the tricks of the trade, and when Frank finds an unsuspecting patsy to pull one final big con (con men in films always seem to need to have “one last big heist”, don’t they? Why can’t they retire with something small-scale and peaceful. But I digress), Roy is reluctant but ultimately agrees to go through with it after being rejuvenated by the presence of Angela. However, things don’t exactly go as planned, and very soon Roy finds himself in a very compromising position, and adding to his stress is the fact that he has a daughter to look out for now.

I will not deny that I am very suspicious when it comes to Nicolas Cage – I have been entertained by his films several times, but every time I trust him into convincing me that he is a good actor, he makes a film like The Wicker Man. Is there any actor so inconsistent in his choice of roles (and choices in performances, the man needs to dial it down quite a few notches most of the time) as Cage? No actor can quite hit as low as Cage has in terms of questionable performances – yet there are very few actors who can hit quite as high as Nicolas Cage when he puts some effort into his performance. Matchstick Men stands as one of his better performances, mainly because we saw the same traces of the campy, unhinged Cage performance that we know and love (simply for the entertainment value, at least in my opinion. You can say a lot about the man, but you can’t say that even his worst performances aren’t mesmerizing to watch. His worst performances are not like gawking at a car wreck, they’re rather like watching the half-conscious passenger from that same car-wreck realize that he only has six minutes to diffuse a bomb on the other side of the city, and he needs to do it or else the whole population is doomed – and its underwater, just for extra measure. Too far? Well, no one actually told Nicolas Cage to not choose to do The Wicker Man, and that was too far. But I digress), while he showed some restraint and actually had a character developed far more from the “manic, strangely heroic middle-aged urban warrior” that has defined most of his recent performances. I honestly could talk about Nicolas Cage for hours, but all we need to admit is that he is pretty great in Matchstick Men, and it stands as one of his better contributions to cinema.

Beyond Cage, there are two very good performances in this film as well. Sam Rockwell, one of the most unheralded and marvelous character actors plays the role of Frank, the loyal sidekick, and protege to Cage’s Roy who is learning about the con-man business so well, he is threatening to overtake Roy as the master con-man. Rockwell has shown himself to be able to play the same kind of unhinged characters as Cage, just with a lot more self-awareness and in such a way that he is far more energetic and excitable, which forms an interesting contrast with Cage’s far more dour and serious Roy. Rockwell is a magnetic screen presence in many films, and while Matchstick Man may not be his definitive role, it is one of earlier performances that showed an actor with radical talent, and the most exciting thing is that over a decade later, we still haven’t seen even a fraction of the full scope of what Rockwell is capable of. He is both a veteran character actor as well as one of the most exciting actors in the business because one never truly knows what to expect from him, and Matchstick Men was just one of the first examples of how incredible he can be, even with a relatively thankless role, which he imbues perfectly.

The second performance worth noting is that of Alison Lohman. Playing the seemingly-naive, but secretly incredibly perceptive Angela, she holds her own against the veterans in the cast, particularly Cage who she shares most of her screentime with. She is unexpectedly great, and her enthusiastic performance is wonderful to watch. She and Cage have great chemistry, and through her very nuanced but still deeply endearing performance, she humanizes Cage and brings out his hidden subtleties. She is far more than a simple young patsy to the main characters, and actually proves to be the most well-developed and fascinating character in the film, and her dedicated performance, where she alternates between being an innocent teenage girl who simply wants to connect with her father, and a street-smart con artist who proves to be far more capable than her adorable front would imply was absolutely astounding. For those who worry that Lohman (who was 23 at the time) seems a bit old to play a 14-year-old (including Cage’s character, who remarks that she seems strangely older than she claims to be), fear not – there is  an explanation for it, and it comes at the end of a treacherous plot-twist that left me shocked but ultimately very entertained.

More than anything else, Matchstick Men is an effective crime comedy that features a heist conducted by con artists at the center. Yet, it is actually very subversive from the traditional archetypes of the genre, and never once resort to taut cliches to drive the plot forward. In Matchstick Men, the con artist aspect is only in the background, with the true focus of this film being on the father-daughter relationship. There is a tendency with these kinds of crime films where the heist takes up the vast majority of the story, and everything is centered around their criminal activities. Matchstick Men is a film about a father trying to reconnect with his daughter, while still at the same time undergoing a huge heist. The two aspects of the film come together and blend perfectly and result in a unique and highly entertaining film that avoid the easy attempts to just follow the traditional patterns defined by other films of the genre.

I really thought Matchstick Men was a great film. Ridley Scott crafted a unique and endearing film that had magnificent performances from its cast and featured Nicolas Cage playing one of his more restrained maniac characters. Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman are also magnificent, as is this film’s dedication to being wonderfully unique. It is a light, entertaining and often very funny crime comedy that pays attention to its characters and locates them within a story that actually cares about developing them to be fully-formed, multi-dimensional individuals. Matchstick Men is truly one of the better con-artist films of this century, and everything just works well in this film. Truly a wonderfully delightful comedy about some very bad people who you just can’t avoid loving.