Themes: Opposites Attract, Culture Clash, Small-Town Life
Main Cast: Janeane Garofalo, David Patrick O'Hara, Milo O'Shea, Jay O. Sanders, Rosaleen Linehan
Release Year: 1997
Country: US/UK/IE
Run Time: 97 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
An American woman on a business trip in Ireland finds love knocking at her door, no matter how sternly she refuses to answer, in this romantic comedy. Marcy Tizard (Janeane Garofalo) is an assistant to Senator John McGlory (Jay O. Sanders), a congressman from Boston in the midst of a hard-fought reelection campaign. Nick (Denis Leary), one of McGlory's advisors, thinks that it might mean some extra votes in McGlory's heavily Irish-American district if he can arrange a photo opportunity with any relatives McGlory might have in the Olde Sod, so Marcy is sent to Ireland to find any surviving members of McGlory's family. Marcy is not especially enthusiastic about this assignment from the start, and her rancor grows when she arrives in the village of Ballinagra to discover that the annual matchmaking festival is in full swing -- and a number of single men immediately seize upon Marcy as a prize catch. One of them, Sean (David O'Hara), a former journalist who has come to Ballinagra to work on a book, takes an immediate fancy to Marcy, which she most certainly does not return. However, Dermot (Milo O'Shea), the town's leading matchmaker (when he's not busy running his tanning salon), is convinced that Sean and Marcy are perfect for each other, and he makes it his business to bring them together, whether Marcy likes the idea or not. The Matchmaker was filmed on location in Massachusetts and Galway, Ireland. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Thanks to star Janeane Garofalo, Mark Joffe's romantic comedy has a number of laughs, but little in the way of romance. Garofalo's character has been sent to the Emerald Isle, the last place she wants to go, as part of her job as an aide to an Irish politician (Jay O. Sanders). The acerbic aide's distaste for the fabled charm of the Irish begins to lessen after she runs into writer/bartender Sean (David O'Hara). Garofalo's witty presence is an asset to any film she appears in, and this one is no exception, but the lack of chemistry with her putative love interest is palpable. The clichés and stereotypes of Irish life, which are meant to serve as a backdrop to the lovers, also begin to grate after a time. O'Hara, Sanders, and Milo O'Shea as the matchmaker are in fine form here, and they and the rest of the talented cast do everything that's asked of them. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Set in 1884, the story focuses on Dolly Gallagher Levi, a widow who supports herself by a variety of means, with matchmaking as her primary source of income. Horace Vandergelder, a wealthy but miserly merchant from Yonkers, New York, has hired her to find him a wife, but unbeknownst to him Dolly is determined to fill the position herself. When he expresses his intent to travel to New York City to woo milliner Irene Molloy, Dolly shows him the photograph of a woman she calls Miss Ernestina Simple and tells him the buxom beauty would be a far better choice for him. Horace agrees to have dinner with Ernestina at the Harmonia Gardens after visiting Irene.
Meanwhile, Horace's clerk head Cornelius Hackl convinces his sidekick Barnaby Tucker that they, too, deserve an outing to New York. The two cause cans of tomatoes to explode, spewing their contents about the store, which justifies their closing it for the day and heading to the city.[1] While there, they come across Irene's hat shop and Cornelius is instantly taken to her. The pair are forced to hide however, when Mr. Vandergelder and Dolly arrive. Though Dolly and Irene cover up for them, Mr. Vandergelder still realizes that Irene is hiding people in her shop (though he doesn't know who) and leaves in disgust. Irene furiously demands that Cornelius and Barnaby repay her by taking her and the shop assistant Minnie out to a fancy restaurant for dinner (Dolly had led her to believe that the men were secretly members of high society).
By total coincidence, Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene, Minnie, Horace, and Dolly all dine at the same restaurant. Horace realizes that Dolly tricked him and that there is no such person as Ernastina Simple. Cornelius worries over how to pay for the meal until a well-meaning diner gives him Mr. Vandergelder's wallet (which the diner believes Cornelius dropped). Over the course of the evening, Irene and Cornelius fall in love as Barnaby falls for Minnie. The two men escape being caught by Mr. Vandergelder by disguising themselves as women and dancing towards the door. Before going, they leave the two women a note confessing who they really are and that they love them.
The next day, Irene and Minnie help the two shopkeepers pretend to be setting up a feed store of their own across the street from Mr. Vandergelders. Frightened by the competition, Horace gives them better working hours and wages. Realizing how foolishly he's been acting, he agrees to marry Dolly as well.
