Star rating: ***
Director:Ridley Scott
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman
Running time: 116 min
Age restriction: 10 LV
Matchstick Men is proof that even the quirkiest off-beat movie needs a feasible plot, and that's why there is much to be said -on the positive and negative side - of this Ridley Scott movie, which sits somewhat uneasily between comedy and drama.
It tells the story of two conmen, Roy (Nicolas Cage) and Frank (Sam Rockwell), who've mastered the art of draining suburbanites of their cash.
With two telephones and a dire lack of morality, they can smooth-talk just about anyone into buying a swimming pool filtration system at a ridiculously inflated price.
The carrot being dangled in front of the hapless victims is a range of awesome prizes, and the operation seems
flawless.
Given the wonderful characterisation of these two men, the movie could easily have indulged in the interactions between the two without introducing the drama at a later stage.
Nicolas Cage is a dab hand at conveying obsessive compulsive disorder, and between this movie and Adaptation, one wonders if it touches on a real side of himself.
Sam Rockwell, the master of off-centre cinema, makes his magic once again and plays nicely off Cage's neurosis.
Even the young Angela (Alison Lohman), Roy's precocious 14-year-old and long-lost daughter, adds an element of intrigue to the personalities being portrayed...and certainly the dynamics between the three could have carried the movie alone, especially if they were explored a little further.
Unfortunately, however, the film tries to be too many things, and more than halfway through, it switches over to dramatic elements, which are completely out of place.
One gets the sense that indecision crept in at an early stage in the script development and was never resolved.
Nevertheless, the experience itself is an enjoyable if not entirely satisfying one, and fans of off-beat comedy will find it to be worth its weight in gold.