SPLICEDwire

I came in to "The Matchmaker" a few minutes late, and the first line of dialogue I heard was "I was just rubbing Muffy."

Turns out the guy was talking about his dog, of course, but I knew right then this movie was in trouble. A romantic comedy that depends on puerile innuendo for its laughs is doomed.

I had high hopes for "The Matchmaker." Starring Janeane Garofalo (who makes me laugh helplessly) as a senatorial aide visiting Ireland in search of the senator's roots for campaign fodder, I was ready to settle in for some rich, comic cynicism.

Then the plot came galloping along. It seems Marcy (Garofalo) has landed at Ballinagra, Ireland just in time for the annual matchmaking festival.

Garofalo balanced romance with her jaded nature quite well in her first foray into romantic comedy, "The Truth About Cats & Dogs", but "The Matchmaker" has little whimsy and even less heart. It trades entirely on her ability to flash a disarmingly sweet smile, which she does, ad nauseam.

Every bachelor in town lines up to propose to her, but Sean (David O'Hara) seems the most determined. He's a drunk and a slacker. She can't stand him. It's fate.

Director Mark Joffe ("Cosi") plunks the couple down in the middle of picturesque Celtic ruins and lathers the getting-to-know-you scenes with poignant piano and new age saxophone. But Garofalo and O'Hara have zero chemistry and, even when she succumbs to her alleged affection, they seem like folks having polite conversation on a blind date.

Each chapter of the movie is introduced by Milo O'Shea, playing the town's champion matchmaker. He provides a lead in for forcibly quaint splashes of local color (Marcy judges a singing contest) and prattles on about the validity of certain romantic clichÈs, as if he were trying to justify the screenplay.

"Sooner or later," he says, "every couple leans down to pick something up at the same time and bonk heads." Therefore the movie is full of guys and gals bonking heads.

Occasionally the fact that Marcy is in Ireland at the behest of the senator resurfaces and she trots around researching his family tree (it turns out he's not Irish after all).

But this plot line doesn't have any more integrity than the romance once we're asked to buy that she has qualms about faking a family reunion. She's a high ranking campaign aide for a philandering U.S. senator, for Pete's sake.

Predictable, middling "romantic comedy"

by Grigory's Girl

This is a rather bland film. It is the usual boring, insipid romantic comedy that Hollywood should stop making, as they are so silly and unbelievable.

Janeane Garofalo, who I consider an immensely intelligent person, is not really right here. She has a disdain throughout the film (except when she turns on the sarcasm, which is the real Janeane), as if she doesn't really believe in the material.

She's far too smart and cynical to really pull this kind of film off. However, if they had cast another actress, it would still be a middling film.

The film is not horrible, but it's nothing really special. The biggest asset it has is that it's filmed in Ireland. The locations are magnificent, and the filmmakers should be commended for shooting there. The film would be absolutely abysmal if it was shot somewhere else.

Amazing but true 

The Irish live in hovels but they have video cameras and laptops. 

KillerMovie.com

April 30th, 1998
THE MATCHMAKER
(R)

Directed by Mark Joffe
Running Time: 96 minutes
Originally Released: October 3, 1997

Reviewed by E. Benjamin Kelsey

* * (out of four)

People are suckers for foreign accents. It doesn't matter what someone is saying, as long as they have that accent, people will listen until the cows come home. For that reason alone, THE MATCHMAKER captivates us, but were it just another small town middle America flick, the small but bewitching amount of magic this film possesses would be completely lost.

Janeane Garofalo takes on her usual cynical persona, this time as Marcy Tizard, campaign aide for dim-witted senator, John McGlory (Jay O. Sanders). It's re-election time and McGlory is behind, so in an attempt to garner some votes out of good human interest, McGlory sends Marcy to Ireland to track down some McGlory ancestry. Absolutely anything but delighted, Marcy travels overseas to the remote Irish town of Ballinagra. It just so happens that Marcy is arriving smack dab in the middle of the annual Matchmaker Festival, where the local cupid, an older gentlemen by the name of Dermot (Milo O'Shea), uses his knack for diagnosing compatibility to put together the singles of the town.

The festival becomes a distraction for Marcy, who's already having a hard enough time with the transition from Boston to a town functioning on simplicity. Her aggravation is only enhanced by her slightly-larger-than-a- closet hotel room and the annoying Sean (David O'Hara), a writer who resides a few rooms down the hall, helps himself to Marcy's bathtub, and owns a luggage desecrating dog. Despite the inaugural friction, Dermot sees real potential between Marcy and Sean and begins a plot to put them together, especially when motivated by his main competitor's doubts (and handsome wager).

For being a romantic comedy, there sure is a low amount of romance. It's not that watching the characters interact isn't fun, but there seems to be a deprived sense of development *between* the characters. Everyone is charming, especially O'Shea as Dermot, but nobody is introduced beyond their initial stages. We don't really get to know any of the characters better by the end. We don't really see them go thru much of a change, and, unfortunately for this film, that's what stories are all about. Even Garofalo, whom I highly admire as one of my favorite modern female actresses, seems a bit dispassionate about her appearance here.

This is a film that will be loved because, like Ballinagra, it's simplistic and sincere almost to a point of naivety. But even though the charm is thick, it's spread on a bit thin. To give some credit, there a few things that do make THE MATCHMAKER watchable: a better than average soundtrack, some beautiful Irish landscapes, and, of course, those cute little accents.
April 26, 1998