Nicolas Cage gives a seminar in tics, Sam Rockwell re-conjures some of the breezy sleaze he used for Chuck Barris, and Alison Lohman runs the gamut of adolescent emotions with zest and style in “Matchstick Men”, the latest from Ridley Scott. Few directors are as adept at using the camera to engage the actors rather than simply film them. As in his best films, “Alien” and “Thelma and Louise”, the most dynamic scenes in “Matchstick Men” are often the ones involving the least action. His camera moves in among the actors and stakes out its territory until even the simplest of interactions—like a man enjoying a hamburger with his daughter—acquires a certain tension. If nothing else this movie reminds us that Scott has a lot more to offer than a bootlicking fetish for the military.

Perfectly suited for Scott’s directing talents, the acting in the film is top-notch, as mentioned, but the writing ultimately fails to capitalize on its assets. The script, penned by Ted and Nicholas Griffin, is paced and plotted well, but unlike the far-fetched but clever “Best Laid Plans”, Ted Griffin’s first feature, this film has no ending. The con games are smoothly delivered, and with nary a wisp of the stale self-congratulation other crime movies bask in. Even more exciting than figuring out the deceptions and double-dealings in con-artist films—which for the experienced eye aren’t hard to suss out about an hour in—is watching to see not who gets cheated, but how. And the story, periodically punctuated by the scene-stealing Rockwell, has a few satisfying tricks up its sleeve.

The best scenes show us Roy and Angela as they get to know each other. Despite his condition, Cage’s warmth seems natural and unforced, while Lohman—bright, giggly, vulgar, and tough all at once—is always just this side of nymphetdom. Roy replaying one of her messages while looking at the “his” and “her” shelves in the fridge, or the two of them conning a lady out of some money at a launderette, carry the movie’s middle without a trace of sentimentality or clumsiness. Unfortunately, crime movies are inhospitable, to say the least, to genuinely sweet moments like those. Typically they involve a real wrecking-ball of a plot resolution, and “Matchstick Men” follows suit. All the fine character moments built up in the story can’t quite avoid demolition, which comes in the form of a drippy coda that rivals that of “Minority Report” for maddening audience betrayal.