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.
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.