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Matchstick Men, which is another term of scam artist, refers to a group of people that earn money by cheating poor and even disable people. A good matchstick man can make people trust him or her, though he or she only has a box of matchsticks in hands. This 2003-released movie, mainly focus on a matchstick man named Roy Waller, who actually called himself con artist. This film has been considered as the best and most intelligent work that the director Ridley Scott and the famous actor Nicolas Cage delivered these years.
Roy Waller, a successful matchstick man, with
plenty of money in the bank, works with his partner as well as his apprentice Frank Mercer and operate a fake lottery, selling
overpriced water filtration systems to unsuspecting customers. Although Roy is
quite successful in his career, his personal life is awful and lonely. All he
has is atoy dog filled with money. He suffers from several mental
disorders since he divorced with his ex-wife, who was pregnant at that time. Roy
knows that he has a 14-year-old girl, Angela, with his ex-wife from his doctor Harris
Klein by chance. This unexpected daughter changes Roy’s life totally. Angela’s
energy and forgiveness even cures Roy’s mental illness in some ways. Roy thus agrees
to work with Frank on a long-term target, a wealthy businessman named Chunk Frechette.
Roy knows that he’s going to make a big money from Chunk. However, what he doesn’t
know is that he is not the real operator of this game.
For me, Nicolas Cage is definitely
the best actor in this film. His camelback, blinking eyes, twitching mouth, habit
of counting one two three before opening a door or a window, and even the habit
of saying ‘AH, AH’ when he’s nervous, make this film funnier as well as the character
Roy more round and interesting. Besides, the actress who plays for Alison
Lohman also did a good job in this film. From what I’ve learned from the
internet, she was almost 25 years old when she’s playing the role of Angela, a
14-year-old teenager. However, I can hardly know that this actress was already
25 years old from the innocence and rebellions on her face. Her good acting skills made this character as natural as possible.
This is a very good film
with a funny beginning, a twisty plot, and a touching ending. Among all these
good scenes, the ending of this film makes me really impressive. Roy doesn’t
expect that the failure of his fraud towards Chunk means a success of another
fraud, in which he is the victim. When he finally realizes, his so-called daughter,
the death of Chunk, the fake investigator, and even his doctor are all part of
a lie, he rushes out of the fake hospital to find Angela, though he is still
very dizzy after being hurting by Chunk. The unbelievable expression and the
sweat on his face made me really impressive. I have to admit that I was very
frustrated at that time to see a mid-aged man lost a daughter that never
exists. I hope this is not a lie, or a lie that never be discovered, so that
Angela and Roy can be father and daughter forever. But when I saw the ending of
the film that Roy finally lives a right life as everybody else does, I thought
this fraud which might makes one lose everything might not be a totally bad thing for Roy.
At least he makes money by his own effort, instead of cheating; he has his own
kid with his beloved wife; he starts eating different kinds of food rather
than Tuna only. For Roy, this fraud, which makes him lose everything, is
actually a rebirth for him.
Besides, there are also
lots of details in this film that make this film even better. For example,
before Roy and Angela’s first meet, Roy smokes a lot, just like other mental
illness patients. What’s even worse is that Roy smokes in his car with all the
doors and windows shut, because he hates outdoors but ever since Roy meets
Angela, the window in his car opened a bit by bit.
This is a good film in general for all groups
of people, and it’s a very good movie for a family to sit in front of the TV and enjoy it together.
Scale of 1-5:
5
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