Matchstick Men

Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review

 

By: The Dweeb

 

February 2004

DVD Features Video: 1.85:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Tricks of the Trade: Making Matchstick Men – follow the director through an intimate day-today account of the filmmaking process. Part I: Preproduction Part II: Production Part III: Postproduction Commentary by Director/Producer Ridley Scott, Writer Nicholas Griffin and Writer/Producer Ted Griffin Theatrical Trailer Theatrical release:9/12/2003 DVD released on 2/24/2004 by Warner Bros. Running time of 116 minutes Starring:  Bruce Altman, Nicolas Cage, Alison Lohman,  Bruce McGill, Sam Rockwell Director: Ridley Scott Plot: A phobic con artist and his protégé are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist’s teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.

 

 

Matchstick Men, another movie from one of my favorite genres, the heist film, runs along the same concept like with Ocean’s 11, but on a  much smaller scale. This film is bit different however, it has a giant plot twist at the end that will leaver the viewer reeling. Whoa! That came out of nowhere you will say. I will try not to spoil it in here.
The movie centers around the life of professional con artist Roy Waller, played by Nicholas Cage. This is one crazy messed up cat, and Nicholas Cage creates a fantastic performance with all the strange oddities that emanate from this guy. He has lots of issues, and those issues seem to release themselves in the form of his non stop ticks, germaphobia, agoraphobia and his completely anal retentive organizational obsession. Within the first few minutes of the movie I though he had Tourettes. Those problems don’t necessarily lend themselves well to being a con artist. “Ah Pygmies! Pygmies!” You will have to watch to know what I am talking about.

His partner, eccentric Frank Mercer (Sam Rockwell) finally can’t take much more of Roy seemingly falling apart at the seams during the middle of one of their little scam operations so he makes him go see a psychiatrist. From there, Roy talks about his ex wife who he blames for all his problems. Eventually he comes to find out he has a daughter and the two meet. Roy’s life completely changes, and his orderly world becomes a mess, but his ticks seem to get better at the same time. I won’t go any further than here because doing so will give away the end.

Ridley Scott does an excellent job creating this little film, I was fully entertained and once again he masterfully sucks you into the movie and makes you feel for all these characters. After the big twist the film stays on a closes up some lose ends, other directors would have probably left the audience hanging wondering what happens next. Well, we find out in this one.

The picture quality for this DVD is pretty standard, and so is the soundtrack. There are some scenes that do seem a bit ‘filmy’ but I would say that was done on purpose to stylize it a little bit. I also enjoyed the soundtrack for Matchstick Men, which is included with the film in this edition. I wish more films would have this as an extra bonus. One thing I did notice is the Frank Sinatra stuff is not on here, but it is very prominent in the film.

Other extra features included are the standard fare, although a bit on the light side it would seem on first glance. The Tricks of the trade documentary is quite lengthy and very interesting to watch Ridley in action. Make one appreciate how much work goes into making a fairly uncomplicated film, imagine what it took with a movie like Blade Runner or Aliens. The commentary track is also an added feature, and Ridely and the writers Ted and Nicholas Griffin provide a boat of background information about Matchstick Men.

This is an excellent film, and a fairly decent DVD package to go along with it. This edition may be a bit on the pricey side for just including an audio cd, so you would be safe to go with the movie only version.

Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!