THE MATCHMAKER (1997)
A film review by Steve Kong Copyright 1997 Steve Kong
I first saw Janeane Garofalo in Touch, which she had a small part. Though Touch was not a great movie, it was the one in which I fell in love with Garofalo. She's had small roles in some recent movies that I've caught, including the recent Cop Land, but nothing major that I've seen. The Matchmaker marks the first film that she is the lead in that I've seen. And what a wonderful film it is.
Marcy Tizard (Garofalo) works as an aide for Senator John McGlory. McGlory is up for re-election and needs something to run with. He's not a particularly bright man and that is why his campaign manager Nick Ward (Denis Leary) is almost in full control of McGlory. Ward needs something to help promote the Senator as a "family" man and it is this that brings him to the idea that they should dig up the genealogy of the Senator, who is Irish. Marcy is sent off to Ireland to find out about the Senator's background. And this is where the movie really starts.
Marcy is dropped into the Irish town of Ballinagra during it's matchmaking festival. It is during the festival that we meet Dermot (Milo O'Shea) who is one of the town's professional matchmakers. And with this we start the romance between Marcy and one of the town's men, Sean (David O'Hare).
Garofalo has a fantastic down-to-earth aura to her, and her cynicism about almost everything is something that I can relate to. She shows that she has great comic timing and is very charming all through the movie. And because she's the lead in this film she is the only reason to see this film. Though there are some other things that you might want to look for.
Milo O'Shea steals every scene that he is in, even the ones that are with Garofalo. His matchmaker character is a very memorable character. O'Hare is also someone to look for, he underplays his role, but it really works for the film.
Kudos to the cinematographer who captures the beauty of Ireland. There is a moment in the movie where the sights are so awe inspiring that the story almost gets lost.
The Matchmaker is definitely a date movie that is not to be missed. It has some great comedy in it, and I found myself laughing out loud many times during the showing. There is also the part that made me tear up, though I didn't start crying. All around The Matchmaker is a great showcase film for Jeneane Garofalo who deserves a big movie like this. Don't miss The Matchmaker in the theatres.
!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!
steve kong reviews@boiled.sbay.org
come visit
the hard boiled movie page
http://boiled.sbay.org/boiled/
!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!=!
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews