This is another name for a con man. I figure that since “Flim Flam Man” and “The Grifters” were already used as movie titles and “Con Man” is kind of boring, they dug up this one. I had never heard of “Matchstick Men” before, so I learned something right from the start.

Nicholas Cage plays Roy, a “matchstick man”. He’s partnered up with Frank, played by Sam Rockwell. They’re pretty good, but it’s small time stuff. It’s funny, when I was headed in to see this movie, I thought of the only real con I know (besides persuading people to give you bank account and credit card numbers) and that’s the one where you get somebody to believe you have a winning lottery ticket and will split the proceeds with them if they’d only show you some good faith and give you some cash upfront.

Well, that one’s in here. In fact, the movie isn’t big on the cons themselves, but is focused on Roy and his mental problems. The guy may be a good con artist, but he’s got a bad case of obsessive-compulsive, anal-retentive disorder. He cleans the house constantly, demanding that people always remove their shoes before stepping on the carpet. With his facial tics and “Tourettes Syndrome” style outbursts, Cage puts on quite a show. It really culminates when he tells his therapist he daydreams about killing himself, but that would make the carpet all bloody and that will never work.

Roy’s life changes when a fourteen-year old girl enters his life. She’s the daughter he’s never met and may be the key to his controlling his mental illness. Alison Lohman plays Angela and soon becomes fascinated with Dad’s line of work.

That presents Roy with a moral dilemma – he loves it when Angela takes an interest in his “work”, but what about it being criminal? With that, Roy’s mental problems return.

“Matchstick Men” gets you to care about a low grade criminal like Roy because he’s struggling with his past and his mental problems. The fact that he’s a con man, well, that seem like such a small thing after a while. What’s both great and frustrating about these kind of movies is that you can never be sure that what you see is what you get. These are scammers, after all. I’ll just say that I get the gold star for keeping that in mind. Credit the writers for wrapping this movie up very nicely. I give “Matchstick Men” a “9.0” on the scale.