Matchstick Men is an unusual addition to Ridley Scott’s celebrated filmography. While primarily known for his lavish, large-scale blockbusters, Scott’s been known to pivot to other genres when least expected. In the early 2000s, he was amid an incredible career comeback. First bursting onto the scene with the one-two punch of Alien and Blade Runner, Scott had suffered a long run of flops following his 1991 blockbuster Thelma & Louise. Movies like 1492: Conquest of Paradise, White Squall and G.I. Jane lost a lot of money, but when he made Gladiator in 2000, he was back – big time. He followed that movie up with two major blockbusters, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down, but then, in 2003, he opted to make a small-scale comedy-drama called Matchstick Men, which paired him with Nicolas Cage.
In it, Cage plays a small-time con man named Roy Waller, who suffers from Tourette syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. While planning a con, he finds out that he’s the father to a 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman), who comes to live with him and becomes involved with his con crony, Frank, played by Sam Rockwell.
While slick and stylish, Matchstick Men also has more heart than usual for a Ridley Scott film, yet it was only a modest performer at the box office, making $36 million – only a fraction of what his larger-scale movies made. The making of the film also seemed to cause a rift with his former composer, Hans Zimmer, who was a frequent Scott collaborator up to this point, but never directly composed a soundtrack for him again following their work together here (he declined to return as a composer for Gladiator II, although many of his associates still frequently work with Scott). So WTF Happened to Matchstick Men? In this episode, our host, Kier Gomes, dives into a Ridley Scott movie that fans of the man ought to check out!
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed