What can I say? I don't know if it's a film that I'd like to watch again, but it was a good movie. Nicolas Cage may either be doing a tour de force or relentlessly overacting; it's your call. I found it very well done for the most part (it is clearly an Oscar-bait part role, but there are some very effective scenes here). Sam Rockwell, in a rather undefined role, is fine as Cage's sleazy accomplice. Allison Lohman has the most difficult role in the film and does a good job with it. The two Bruces--Altman and McGill--turn in essential supporting roles.

VAGUE SPOILERS


*Is the ending predictable or not? I don't know if it's easily predictable, but any reasonably astute viewer should pick up on it, in my opinion, because there are a whole horde of things that do not make sense UNLESS the ending is what it is, such as, most gallingly, how did Bruce McGill know where to find Cage's car at the airport (and how could he get there so fast)?

And, oh yeah, it felt like the whole thing was a TON of work for something that should have been able to be completed with a minimum of effort. I guess that's the name of the game, but it leaves you a little bemused at the end.

Great movie.

It unfolded at a pace that was calm and steady, but not boring. Things developed naturally. Throughout most of the film, I was thinking about how adorable Alison Lohman was. The huge plot twist was absolutely HEARTBREAKING. I felt like crying right alongside Nicholas Cage on his ex's doorstep. (The other part in the pharmacy was also really good.) Finding out that Alison Lohman just turned TWENTY-FOUR a week and a half ago just stuns me. This girl DESERVES a Best Supporting Actress nomination, if not the win outright, PERIOD.

The one thing I think should've been done differently was the very last scene. It was too obvious, too in-your-face, where the film is saying, "Ok, don't worry, there's going to be a happy ending. Here, let us tell you exactlywhat that ending is." The film obviously wanted to sympathize with Roy, and so it let him off the hook. It might instead have taken a cue from As Good As it Gets, another film about a recluse whose job and Obessive-Compulsive Disorder cut him off from the rest of the world, and therefore, happiness: It simply HINTS at change. He forgets to do his ritual with the lock on his front door, invites someone he doesn't really like initially into his home, etc. The movie depicts a possible future for him, but doesn't come out and say outright what it is or that it will happen. Matchstick Men takes the obvious road. Rather than have him go to the supermarket, wheel his cart full of tuna toward the cashier played by LA Law's Sheila Kelly, and maybe, just before he gets on line, have him go back and get him some New York Super Fudge Chunk Ice Cream, and then ask her out before he leaves (pretty much what Awakenings did with Robin Williams and Julie Kavner), it goes overboard. It's satisfying for the type of audience that wants everything neat and clean and tidied up, but not for those who like to use their own imaginations. This is the kind of ending for people who want Quentin Tarantino to tell them outright what’s that glowing thing in Marcellus Wallace’s brief case, or where Mr. Pink was running to at the end.

Still, it was a great film.