The Matchmaker
As she does inThe Truth About Cats and Dogs, Janeane  Garofalo proves she's a capable  leading lady--beautiful, charming, self-effacing, and what used to be referred to as sharp as a tack.  Garofalo plays Marcy, aide to dim Massachusetts senator McGlory (Jay O. Sanders). Denis Leary is  appropriately slimy as a fellow aide. The senator and Nick dispatch  Marcy to the remote (and fictitious)  Irish town of Ballinagra, where she's supposed to unearth relatives to  use in the senator's PR campaign. Along the way, Marcy not only encounters the eccentric locals, but  finds herself in the maelstrom  of the town's annual matchmaking festival. The single Marcy  inadvertently catches the eye of the movie's  eponymous matchmaker Dermot (a captivating Milo O'Shea). Dermot senses sparks between Marcy and  the equally cynical, recently returned local boy, Sean (David O'Hara),  once a successful journalist who's  returned home to work on a book. The intimacies of the small town, the relationships between the locals, and the dialogue are credible and  engaging. Look for beautiful cinematography and music, too. Also notable is the movie's ability to convey the feel of a foreign film while injecting humor that's both sarcastically American and yet Irish in trademark.--N.F. Mendoza