Matchstick Men (2003)

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details
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: Sep 12, 2003
Running Time: 116 mins.
Country Of Origin: United States
synopsis
Meet Roy and Frank, a couple of professional small-time con artists. What Roy, a veteran of the grift, and Frank, his ambitious protégé, are swindling these days are “water filtration systems,” bargain-basement water filters bought by unsuspecting people who pay ten times their value in order to win bogus prizes like cars, jewelry and overseas vacations--which they never collect. These scams net the flim-flam men a few hundred here, another thousand there, which eventually adds up to a lucrative partnership. Roy’s private life, however, is not so successful. An obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe with no personal relationships to call his own, Roy is barely hanging on to his wits, and when his idiosyncrasies begin to threaten his criminal productivity he’s forced to seek the help of a psychoanalyst just to keep him in working order. While Roy is looking for a quick fix, his therapy begets more than he bargained for: the revelation that he has a teenage daughter--a child whose existence he suspected but never dared confirm. What’s more troubling, 14-year-old Angela wants to meet the father she never knew. At first, Angela’s appearance disrupts her neurotic father’s carefully ordered routine. Soon, however, with his own unique spin on parenthood, Roy begins to enjoy a relationship he never dreamed of having with his daughter. But while he develops paternal feelings for the 14-year-old, she’s developing a fascination with Daddy’s questionable career.
cast + crew
Director
Roy Waller
Frank Mercer
Angela
Dr Klein
Chuck Frechette
Mrs Schaeffer
Mr Schaeffer
Laundry Lady
Slacker Boyfriend
Screenplay
Screenplay
Source Material
Producer
Producer
Producer
Producer
Producer
Co-Producer
Executive Producer
reviews
Source
rating September 8, 2003
Why would Ridley Scott, who usually works in the epic mode of Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, direct an intimate character piece about two L.A. con men? Maybe because the script, by Nicholas and Ted Griffin (Ocean's Eleven), springs so many juicy comic and dramatic surprises. Nicolas Cage is at the top of his game as Roy, a scam artist with more tics than a picnic blanket. He counts to three before entering a room. His worried partner, Frank (Sam Rockwell), sends him to a shrink (Bruce Altman),… Continued
Source

When an obsessive-compulsive con artist meets his 14-year-old daughter for the first time, it changes his life forever.

Story

Flimflam man, matchstick man, con man--there are all kinds of names for them, but Roy Waller (Nicolas Cage) is a slightly different sort of con artist. He is an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe whose habits include opening and closing a door three times before walking through it; keeping a house so fastidiously clean it reeks of disinfectant; and displaying so many… Continued

Source
rating February 11, 2004
In Matchstick Men, Nicolas Cage plays an obsessive-compulsive con man, apparently under the theory that if you combine two movie cliches, they somehow start to seem original. The twist is that Cage's long-lost daughter shows up; the nontwist is that, as in all con-man movies, the person being conned turns out to be someone different from whom you thought it was. Not exactly the freshest idea in the world, but it beats watching Nic Cage clean his furniture with a toothbrush.

TOM NAWROCKI
(Februar Continued