Matchstick Men
Eh, it's okay.
Like The Sixth Sense I knew going into it that it had "a really big twist that you'll never guess!" so armed with that, like The Sixth Sense, of course I was able to guess it from the premise alone. Yes, I am that smart. Unlike The Sixth Sense I'm not sure this film works when you consider the twist as but a sum of its parts. It seemed too contrived with many scenes in there just to make you go "oh, that's a clue" on the second watch. Like when Nic Cage's character authorises his daughter's signature to open his safe deposit box – for no reason! – except, wait, that's okay because she couldn't possibly know the pin number...whatever. Stupid. It would seem to me that someone who is supposed to be a great con-artist would get a little cluey that strange things like that are happening at the exact same time that this daughter comes magically into his life. He is obsessive compulsive, not a retard. And that he even says "make sure whomever you're conning isn't conning you" paints him as an even bigger idiot. Now sure, his character can become an idiot, maybe that's the whole point (that his love for his daughter clouds his instincts...) but I don't think we ever got a sense that this guy was actually any good at what he did. Sure we were told he was, and he had a lot of money, but the only con we see him on is a pretty shitty one (again, probably the point, but...) involving a water purifier.
This just didn't stand up when compared to what I consider genuine twist films like Mamet's Spanish Prisoner or House of Cards. Which means it better have a bloody good second level to fall back on.
I expected to hate the obsessive-compulsive disorder thing because I usually do. I don't have a problem with the concept, except it is usually used as a weak substitute for actual characteristics where the character just is a walking neurosis and not much else. Having said that I liked Nic's tics. Nice performance.
Lohman was ggggggreat. I felt a bit seedy because after Big Fish I thought she was quite hot, and now she was playing a fourteen year old. And she was still kinda hot. I have a weakness for pretty girls on skateboards, but that's my own thing and I'm looking into it. She played fourteen well. Remarkable, actually.
Rockwell was a bit underused. We really needed to see him and Cagey on a big con earlier in the piece, something that established both their characters and their relationship a bit more. Still, as far as the whole crazy-conman's-life-changes-when-he-meets-his-daughter thing goes, I dug that. Once he took her out to show her some cons I thought the film was moving along nicely. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to experience their relationship untainted by the knowledge that she was playin' him the whole time. Again, yes, I am that smart.
Ultimately I thought it was a film that thought it was smarter than it actually was. And I was smarter than it. All hail me.