The Match King

Directed by William Keighley and Howard Bretherton, The Match King follows Warren William’s Paul Kroll as he unscrupulously claws his way to the top of the matchstick industry. Filmmakers Keighley and Bretherton, armed with a script by Houston Branch and Sidney Sutherland, deliver a watchable yet relentlessly erratic endeavor that’s at its best when focused on William’s nefarious central character, as the actor offers up as smarmy and unapologetically malevolent a portrayal as one might’ve anticipated (ie Kroll does, for much of the picture’s running time, come off as an agreeably larger-than-life, mustache-twirling villain). And while the movie’s midsection includes a handful of compelling sequences, including (and especially) a terrific scene wherein Kroll explains how matches are more valuable than gold, The Match King suffers from a hit-and-miss narrative that tends to place far too great an emphasis on Kroll’s decidedly less-than-enthralling personal relationships – which, despite the presence of an appreciatively bleak conclusion, confirms the film’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that should be much better.

**1/2 out of ****