'Matchstick Men' lights up the screen

By Nathan Hathaway

For a while, “Matchstick Men” looks like it’s just going to be a sappy father-daughter story hidden under the guise of a suspenseful movie about con men.

But then the suspense kicks in. The father-daughter part disappears, and only remnants of the sap remain.

Nicholas Cage stars as Roy Waller, a veteran con artist with a lot of…problems. Roy has a deathly fear of being outdoors. He can’t stand dirt or anything out of place. He’s hopelessly obsessive-compulsive. He has a number of uncontrollable tics. And he smokes like a tire fire. In spite of it all, however, he’s an excellent grifter.

Roy and his protégé, Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell), start out the movie with small-time cons, fleecing innocent old ladies of hundreds of dollars.

But then they find the big con they’re looking for: swindle arrogant millionaire Chuck Frechette (Bruce McGill) out of about $80,000.

But before the two even get involved with Frechette, Roy’s new psychiatrist sets up a meeting between Roy and his long-lost 14-year old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman).

Roy’s scared to death. He doesn’t know how to be a father. But he and his daughter click, and before you know it, she’s spending the night at his immaculate house. And discovering he doesn’t really work in antiques, like he says he does. “How many antiques dealers keep hundreds of dollars and a gun in a (hollow statue of a) dog in their living room?” Angela asks her father.

Having a 14-year-old hanging around, however, can certainly make life difficult for a man trying to make a dishonest living.

When Angela gets interested in Dad’s line of work, things take a turn for the worse. She demands—basically forces— that Roy teach her a con. So for starters, Angela gets a lesson in how to use a lottery scam, and she cheats a lady out of $300. A seamless con. Roy sees that she’s a natural and feels an odd mix of pride and disgust that his daughter is such a great con artist.

Circumstances force Roy to involve Angela in the Frechette con, which gets the two into a dangerous situation and prompts Ray to question his line of work.

And then it gets good.

Cage does a very good job of playing the offbeat Roy. He makes the tics look real without over-acting. He acts just neurotic enough to make you think he is really dealing with the issues his character has. Cage delivers his lines to near-perfection, peppering his speech with little grunts and pauses, making it seem like just speaking is a real chore.

Rockwell is the perfect man to play the slimy Frank. If Rockwell’s not careful, he’s going to be typecast and spend his career as the perrenial dirty bird.

The audience’s general disdain and dislike for him comes easy. After his performances as serial killer “Wild Bill” Wharton in “The Green Mile,” television producer/CIA assassin Chuck Barris in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and villainous computer guru Eric Knox in “Charlie’s Angels,” audiences are accustomed to Rockwell playing the bad guy. So the con-man role in “Matchstick Men” fits him well.

Lohman is endearing as not-quite-so-innocent Angela, and McGill commands respect and has a strong screen presence as the pompous millionaire who deserves to get taken for everything he’s worth.

Thankfully, “Matchstick Men” turns out to be a pretty good suspenseful con-man movie people are expecting when they go to see it.

Overall Grade: B+