Initially, Marcy isn't impressed with Ireland. She's only irritated by everything she sees, and she calls everyone she meets "Paddy." An old codger throws rocks at her and calls her "loud," "mischievous," "greedy," and "meddlesome." Matchmakers keep giving her advice. However, very quickly she starts to see the men and women pairing off and then she starts to feel like something might be missing from her own life.

If you've seen the movie Local Hero, then The Matchmaker might sound familiar. Both movies send an American to a remote part of the UK and then turn our expectations upside down. Peter Riegert played the American in Local Hero and he went to Scotland to acquire property rights for an oil company run by a crazy millionaire (played by Burt Lancaster). Director Bill Forsyth gave us plenty of eccentric characters to liven up the town, including a beautiful woman marine biologist who might also be a mermaid (a witty comment on Scottish mythology). However, while The Matchmaker does contain a few interesting characters, such as Milo O'Shea as one of the town's leading matchmakers, the story itself doesn't hold many surprises. A relationship starts to develop between Marcy and the young man that she found soaking in her tub (played by David O'Hara). However, the chemistry between Garofalo and O'Hara isn't exactly fiery. The movie coasts on the considerable charms of Garofalo, but even her cute-as-a-bug's-ear smile begins to wear thin after a while.

The wonderfully bizarre circumstances that plant Marcy in the middle of the Matchmaking Festival never really pay off. Whereas Local Hero was filled with quirky charms and oddball situations, The Matchmaker never becomes particularly inspired. The ads for The Matchmaker try to sell the movie as "a romantic comedy for people who hate romantic comedies." But ultimately, The Matchmaker becomes just what it tries to avoid--a conventional romantic comedy, the kind where the man and woman hate each another initially, but then their love starts to grow. The movie's initial quirkiness eventually only yields predictable romantic situations.