The Matchmaker (1997)

Good idea lost in the noise

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Well, this was it. This was THE movie in the career of Janeane Garafolo. After the surprising success of The Truth About Cats and Dogs in 1996, this was her shot at being a real movie star. How many actresses would kill for a "star vehicle" like this? How many actresses have been able to build entire careers on a breakthrough romantic comedy? This was Janeane Garfolo's shot, her ship had come in, her time had arrived…and I sincerely hope that after she finished shooting The Matchmaker, she tracked down each and every single person responsible for making this film and beat them all like rented stepchildren.Marcy (Garofalo) is a campaign aide to embattled Massachusetts Senator John McGlory (Jay O. Sanders). Facing near certain defeat in a re-election campaign, the dim-witted Senator and his unbelievable jackass of a campaign manager (Dennis Leary) dispatch Marcy to Ireland to find some Irish relatives to appear in a campaign spot for the Senator and save the election for him. Apparently, hanging out with distant relations in a foreign land is far more important to Massachusetts voters than little things like taxes or health care. Upon arriving in the little town where the Senator's Irish roots are buried, Marcy finds herself with two problems.1. She can't find any evidence of any McGlory's ever living in the town.2. She's found herself smack dab in the middle of a matchmaking festival where colorful Irish stereotypes have flooded the small town in search of love.I think you can see where this is going. Marcy is thrown together with Sean (David O'Hara), an Irish journalist who's fled from the "big city" of Dublin back to his tiny home town, and a series of wildly contrived circumstances first unites and then divides them as Marcy sours on the Senator's efforts to exploit the people of this small Irish village to further his political career.Watching a bad movie can stir up many different feelings inside you. Anger. Disgust. Confusion. Astonishment. But the feeling you get watching The Matchmaker is plain and simple sorrow for Janeane Garofalo as you watch her chance at stardom go rocketing down this cinematic toilet.This is one of the most incompetently written films I've ever seen, made all the worse for how it is so awesomely formulaic. It's not just that there isn't a single moment in movie that you haven't seen in every other romantic comedy ever made, it's also that many of those moments don't make a lick of sense. It's almost as though someone took an existing screenplay about a matchmaking festival in an Irish village and then just sprinkled about 40 pages of story about Garofalo's character throughout the script, without making any effort at all to make sure things fit together. T he Matchmaker is like the romantic comedy version of The Last Samurai, but instead of sticking oh-so-Caucasian Tom Cruise into a Japanese story, this one sticks oh-so-acerbic Garafalo into an Irish one where she can stand around and observe the natives' eccentricities.It's actually difficult to fully convey to you how poorly this film is written. Marcy is supposed to be the main character, but in the first half hour of the movie there is literally just a single line a dialog that tells us anything about her as a person. There is literally not a single reason given for why Marcy and Sean start hanging out together or why they'd like each other, let alone love each other. There is literally not a single instant in this story where anything happens for any substantive reason except the script says it's supposed to happen.You can see in The Matchmaker the same thing you could see in The Truth About Cats and Dogs, that there was tremendous potential in Garafalo as a star. She's this pretty little thing with a beautiful smile and a real tough edge to her. But other than ruthlessly exploiting that smile every chance they get, The Matchmaker hasn't the slightest idea what to do with her.Watching this film made me really want to believe in the theory that every decision we make produces an alternate reality where the opposite decision is made. I wish I could see what Janeane Garofalo's career looks like in that parallel universe where she lit the script for The Matchmaker on fire and told her agent to get her something better.

This is an enjoyable romantic comedy which even I, being a man, could watch without my toenails crinkling or my gonads shriveling up. The movie works perfectly as long as brassy big-city-girl Janeane Garofalo is confronted with an every-cliché-in-the-book village in the Irish boondocks. This concept stops working as soon as Janeane becomes all gooey gooey about that Irish heartthrob, which happens at about two thirds of the movie. At this point the script tries to tie up too many loose ends and performs a 180° turn towards a happy ending in which big city girl and Oirish oik find true love, the senatorial candiadate wins his election, and the hard-nosed spin doctor commits societal suicide. A bit too much cheese for my palate. Before that the movie was fresh and entertaining -- although it did pander to every cliché about the emerald isle in the book (the women all have luscious arse-length curly red hair, etc.).Stuff I didn't like:*Marcy (Janeane Garofalo) harping on about how she's addicted to fax machines and the New York Times at inappropriate moments. It just makes her seem self-important and boorish.*The fact that autochtonic love interest Sean isn't just a simple Oirish country yokel but actually a cutting-edge investigative journalist who left the business because he was disgusted by the lack of ethics in the industry.*When Marcy arrives at the hotel, she is told that there aren't any rooms available. No more rooms, huh, she asks back. Nope, none whatsoever, she is told. Then they ask around every hotel in the county. Finally the landlady concedes that they do, after all, have a room with en-suite bathroom and fecking bathtub available. Funny that she didn't think of that in the first place.*That this -- for some dark reason -- was director Mark Joffe's last movie to date.Stuff I did like:*How Marcy, when she is being chatted up by Sean, lowers her voice and asks him intimately: "Is being an idiot like being high all the time?"*The acting, especially of the secondary characters, is amazing. Check out matchmaker Milo O'Shea or the local "it's a filthy, FILTHY business" genealogist. Jay O'Sanders and Dennis Leary also make an amazing couple as the nit-witted senator and his ruthless adviser.

nice little film overlooked at box office when it came out,no major stars a little love story taken place in ireland and with janeane garofalo as its star. a nice entertaining little movie.and some nice songs too boot.if u have not seen it check it out.might surprise u.a politician sends a female assistance to find his irish background because of his district he is running in.janeane runs into some strange characters including a matchmaker who decides to hook her up.she ends up falling for this fellow who repels her at first.but like always in films like this she falls for him and gives up her job and lives happily ever after.

I really don't understand why Janeanne Garofalo doesn't get more roles. She is a truly wonderful actress who owns the screen when she's on it. There is never anything forced about her performances. They always seem natural. Here, she plays Marcy Tizard, a spin doctor for a U.S. senator trying to get re-elected. Her job has become to track down his relatives from the small town in Ireland where his family emigrated from. This will help the senator secure the Irish vote in Chicago and win him the election. So off to Ireland she goes in an attempt to find his missing relatives. Of course, nothing is ever easy and Marcy finds herself smack dab in the middle of a match making festival. While fending off possible suitors, she becomes entwined in the lives of several colourful locals. Among them is of course, the local matchmaker (Milo O'Shea) who has taken to setting her up with Sean (David O'Hara), the local bartender and former journalist. The humour is warm and the characters are all well drawn out. Denis Leary has a small role as a colleague and resident ***hole. The film truly belongs to Garofalo as she is perfectly cast in the role of weary and cynical Marcy. Give it a shot. It's a near perfect match.