The Matchstick Men situation

Warning: DO NOT READ IF FOR SOME REASON YOU HAVE NOT SEEN MATCHSTICK MEN YET AND ARE CERTAIN YOU WILL SEE IT AND DON'T WANT THE END RUINED

Okay, we can proceed.

Basically, Matchstick Men is about neurotic con man Nicolas Cage, and the first three quarters at least of the movie are about him dealing with his neuroses, and working with his partner Sam Rockwell and his daughter Alison Lohman to complete a giant scam. Oh, but wait - you get to the end and things aren't as they seem at all - in fact it's Nicolas Cage being conned by Sam Rockwell and the person who he thought was his daughter but is not after all - she was just brought in as part of the con. Of course, they're not the only ones in on the con - who Cage thinks is his psychiatrist Bruce Altman and who he thinks is their intended target underrated character actor Bruce McGil.

Basically, the upshot of this is that an insane exact number of things had to go right for their incredibly elaborate con of Nicholas Cage to work, rendering the entire movie implausible, and not just regular implausible, like any con movie would be, but even con movie implausible. If just one thing went wrong - if Nicolas Cage made just one slight move that they hadn't predicted exactly, the entire con would go up in smoke, but of course, that's not what happens.

There are other examples of the Matchstick Men situation at work - one notable one is The Game - in which another underrated character actor James Rebhorn using tests of Michael Douglas's psyche to explain away how they knew exactly how he would respond to every course of action. (By the way - giving someone a gift of a Game that ends up in making you want to kill yourself - that's a terrible fucking present. I hope my brothers read this.)

DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE NOT UP TO DATE ON 24 AND ARE PLANNING ON WATCHING

Anyway, so this otherwise mostly forgettable film represents a paradigm that is being played out again in 24 this season - as it seems Tony is evil again - it presents us with a scenario in which one thousand separate little things would have had to gone right to put him in the situation he is in. It's 24 so continuity isn't paramount, and not the main reason to watch the show but still, I'll have to try not to think about it, as it just makes my head hurt.