AT LONG LAST , a movie about small-time crooks that doesn't revolve around a veteran of the trade being lured back for "one last score." The latest from the prolific Ridley Scott (working in character-driven Thelma and Louise mode, not bombastic Gladiator-Black Hawk Down mode) follows the near-midlife crisis of Roy (Nicolas Cage), a seasoned con man who has almost managed to rationalize his felonious life: people give him their money, he doesn't break into their homes and take it – also, he never resorts to violence. Things would be perfect in Roy's world except for the fact that his conscience eats away at him in the form of a nervous tic and an obsessive-compulsive desire for cleanliness. He's also agoraphobic, and his only human contact (save the friendly cashier at the grocery where he buys his steady diet of tuna fish) is his younger, sleazier partner in crime, Frank (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind's Sam Rockwell). Roy comes completely unwound when he learns he has a 14-year-old daughter, Angela (Alison Lohman, who's a decade older in real life but, as in last year's White Oleander, is completely believable as a young teen). Roy and Angela hit it off just as Roy and Frank are planning the biggest score of their careers; complications, executed with great flair and great suspense, ensue. Matchstick Men, based on Eric Garcia's novel, is a thoroughly enjoyable example of what happens when all involved in a film are at the top of their game: it's beautifully photographed, acted, and directed, with a thoughtful, multilayered story that comments, with wry humor, on the highs of taking advantage and the lows of opportunities lost. (Cheryl Eddy)