Amori e imbrogli

The Matchmaker is a consistently funny, touching, romantic movie with lovely scenery (shot on location!) and great Irish music. All I knew at the outset of seeing it was that it involved two of my favorite things...Ireland and Janeane Garofalo. I saw it, and added a third...David O'Hara!

It's been awhile since I saw a couple as realistically portrayed as Marcy and Sean, although in the midst of it was a lot of magic. They fight, they bonk heads, they kiss, they fall head over heels...then they nearly miss the boat! You'll find yourself cheering them on at every turn.

The rest of the cast is a scream, from Denis Leary as a snide jerk of a campaign manager to Jay Sanders as the slightly dim Senator McGlory to the matchmaker himself, Milo O'Shea. They all play off each other to create a wonderfully woven story.

Sure'n I've almost worn my copy through, and will watch it again tomorrow! GO RENT IT!

It was a little trite, but aren't they all? That is the only complaint I have about this film, and that really isn't a complaint because that is just how all romantic comedies are especially the good ones. And this is a good one. Janeane Garofalo goes ahead and proves that you don't need Julia Roberts as the romantic lead to have a good romantic comedy that people will enjoy and want to see again and again (I've watched it at least three times). This is overlooking the fact that Garofalo herself is gorgeous, and the fact that she doesn't have any clue as to how attractive she is makes her all the more charming. David O'Hara, Garofalo's love interest, is handsome and heart-warming as well. You can't help falling in love with these two, and rooting for them throughout the movie. The story is typical, boy meets girl, they hate each other, they love each other, they fight, they make up, they live happily ever after. But that's just as it should be. It is the banter between Garofalo and O'Hara that make this film along with the amazing supporting cast in this little Irish town. And Dennis Leary is hilarious as usual. Rent this instead of Pretty Woman one night, you won't be sorry.

Marcy (Janeane Garofalo) is working on a Massachusetts senatorial campaign for a gentleman named McGlory. It is a tooth-and-nail fight between the candidates and McGlory is desperate for some "oomph". Having always been told that his family came from a certain village in Ireland, he sends Marcy across the ocean to locate his long lost roots. The would-be senator feels this would connect him with the many Irish-American voters in the east coast state. Marcy goes, reluctantly. In the village, she has a hard time finding temporary digs, as there is a big "matchmaking" festival going on. She is reduced to staying at a little inn, in a tiny room, and having a handsome man named Sean using her bathtub, if the mood strikes him. The main local matchmaker (Milo O'Shea) says Marcy and Sean are a good match but Marcy resists this notion. However, on her search for McGlory's past, she meets up with Sean on many an occasion. Could something be brewing in the love department? First, this is a great movie to see Garofalo in action. Long heralded as a mighty comedian, she deftly carries this film with her large talent for humor and she looks beautiful, too. The Irish setting is also so lovely that one almost wishes every movie could be shot in this beautiful country. O'Shea is "simply marvelous" in his role as the man who, unmarried himself, gets other unlikely couples together. Then, too, the script is quite nice, with lines such as "when have you ever been backwards at being forward?"! There is a big surprise at the end, which makes for a giant sendoff in the laugh department. Do you love romantic comedies with sparkle, wit, and lovely surroundings? This movie is a great match for your late night film enjoyment wishes.

A romantic comedy set in Ireland that weaves a spell with the unlikely themes of a cynical search into a Boston Senator's ancestral roots to boost poor ratings back home, and a rural matchmaking festival with its simple recipe for success. This delightful movie pokes gentle ironic fun at just about every cliche in the book, Irish, big-city American and political, and is refreshingly amusing on the way..... It never takes itself too seriously, Milo O'Shea is wonderful, David O'Hara has a fine touch, and Janeane Garofola apart from being a fine actress, has the most wonderful eyes and smile. A pity we don't see more actresses with this quality rather than the strange elongated creatures that inhabit Hollywood. I loved this movie. I loved the characters, the playfulness and humour, the people were real even though the setting was a fantasy..... and I still think the ending is one of the best..... often screen romances manage to interest, stimulate, inspire etc.... but this is the only one I've seen where both actors have captured the wonder and magic that happens when two human beings delight in each other...

If this movie isn't the best thing Janeane Garofalo has ever done it must be close. The acerbic wit she was known for on "The Larry Sanders Show" is there, but so is everything else. She's a three-dimensional character.

It's refreshing to see a love story without a sex scene, or even a gratuitous nude or near nude scene. Most filmmakers nowadays would throw something like that in just to tease audiences with it in the trailer. But "Matchmaker" is an honest movie, and Garofalo's Marcy is tough yet vulnerable and loveable.

Some would say that "Matchmaker" exploits the Irish by way of stereotyping them. I had the opposite impression. It seemed that the people who made this movie loved the Irish.

Usually I find myself agreeing with the aggregate score of each movie in the IMDb. But in this case I'm out of the mainstream. The aggregate score is 6.2, which normally indicates a barely watchable movie. But I gave Matchmaker a 10.