The Matchbreaker

The acting isn't the best, but it's a sweet and cute movie. Christina Grimmie's voice is incredible - such a terrible and tragic loss. This film is a nice way to remember her.

"Ethan Cooper" (Wesley Elder) is a single, young man who has a problem maintaining any kind of romantic relationship because he is extremely critical of all the women he meets. The reason for this is because he has placed a certain female named "Emily Atkins" (Christina Grimmie) on a pedestal since grade school and everyone else simply cannot compete with the unrealistic standard he has set by comparison. Ironically, this inability to accept imperfection comes in quite handy when he finds himself being asked by parents to break up relationships involving their sons or daughters-and being lucratively rewarded for his efforts in the process. And then one day Emily comes back to town. Now, rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a cute little rom-com which, even though it was rather predictable, managed to maintain its charm all the same. In any case, while it certainly wasn't a great comedy by any means, I still liked this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

For a film that is just about G rated The Matchbreaker was taking on an unusual subject. A good looking young man who is hired by parents mostly to break up their daughter's engagements to men the parents don't like. That's what Wesley Elder does and if you weren't trying for a PG rating that would of necessity involve seduction.

That being said The Matchbreaker is an innocent bit of fluff involving a guy who loses his day job and starts doing this for a price. That is until he meets Christina Gimmie whose parents have hired him to wean her away from Ben Davies. The problem is that she's a girl he had kid crush on way back when so it gets real fast.

In my sheltered senior citizen world I had not heard of Christina Gimmie so I was shocked and saddened to read of her death and the manner of it. Reminds me a lot of the Rebecca Schaefer and Barbara Colby homicides. And of course another senseless death at the hands of a creature who should never have gotten his hand on a gun. She was a talented young singer who should have had a long career.

This film does strain credulity a bit, but it's nice entertainment.

I think most/all of the reviews for this movie are from the cast/crew, etc. so I'm giving a real review from a real viewer who really found the movie randomly on Netflix. Story: Great. Could have been one of the all time great love stories. On par with Failure to Launch/Can't Buy Me Love/Begin Again. Directing: Surprisingly great. Watch out for Caleb Vetter. This movie could be the "Clerks" of his career. Overall movie quality: Really Good, between the great direction and the fabulous shots of Kansas City, the entire movie flows as you would expect from a RomCom with just enough twists and fun moments. Acting: some of the worst....ever. Christina Grimmie does a great job, not just singing either. I'm not just saying that as respect for such a great loss, she did a fabulous job. There are some minor parts with great acting (Michael Joiner, for example) but all the YouTubers did nothing more than deliver the lines. Wesley Elder is static and lacks a way for us to endear him to us. With better actors this movie could have been great. This also enhances my comparison to Kevin Smith as Brian O'Halloran does a spectacularly bad on-screen job. The difference it that Kevin Smith works with it and Caleb Vetter tries to make a mainstream film with it.

Christina Grimmie delivered an amazing performance, conveying dozens of subtle emotional nuances through the lens of a Jazz singer. Look past some of the production quality challenges, and you can see fine-grained balance of passion and reservation. You see this coming through as a deep well, knowing there are plenty of resources held in reserve. There are dozens of examples of this, mostly during interactions to Wesley Elder's character, where she conveys far more through her subtle but precise facial expressions and voice tone (using dozens of combinations) than the words she uses. The result draws you into this light hearted story, and feel what this character feels, without taking you on an emotional roller coaster.

The world lost a sweet and talented soul six months ago, with tons of potential to continue to impact the world. Fortunately for us, she left behind this performance that was both sad and fun at the same time... "(to make) you feel better about the bad stuff."