Matchmaker, The Review

Several Australians lent their not inconsiderable talents to The Matchmaker, but you wonder if it was worth the trouble. This quite unbelievable romantic comedy stars Janeane Garofalo as Marcy Tizard, aide to a bland American politician, Jay .O. Sanders, who`s up for re-election and who needs the Irish vote in his Massachusets constituency. So he sends Marcy, without any hotel reservation by the way, to the Irish village of Ballinagra, which is where his family apparently hails from. It`s a wonder Marcy finds any accommodation at all, because Ballinagra is in the midst of a matchmaking festival - but she stays and starts a fruitless search for her boss` ancestors - while finding herself, as a single, eligible female, a desirable addition to the matchmaking festivities...With names like Mark Joffe as director and Louis Nowra as co-screenwriter I`d expected a lot more from The Matchmaker. Apart from the many improbabilities of the plot, this is a remarkably bland romantic comedy, filled with the most stereotypically Irish "characters" seen on screen since The Quiet Man - and what was charming and fun in 1953 doesn`t look quite so charming today. I couldn`t work out what on earth Marcy sees in Sean (David O`Hara) or why Milo O`Shea is overacting so much as Dermot, the chief matchmaker. Thank goodness for Ellery Ryan`s lovely widescreen photography.