MatchMakers (Paul Mathieu, 2008): USA

If you have ever been on, or have set up a friend on a blind date, you know it can turn out to be very interesting to say the least. You have never met the person, yet you agree to spend an evening together and hope for the best. Paul Mathieu’s new movie “MatchMakers” takes you into the lives of many different people all desperately searching for the same thing; love. As I sat watching the film, the audience including myself couldn’t stop laughing through the entire screening.

I decided to see “MatchMakers” after a friend of mine, Sjoerd Koppert, told me he had just finished doing the sound for, as he called it, a hilarious new local film. I went to see the film at the Center Stage Theaters not knowing very much about it, but was soon taken into a world that is all too familiar to my generation. Ever since the internet has been around, online dating services have been increasing rapidly every day. Companies such as Match.com, Eharmony, even Myspace have been online communities that are becoming more and more socially acceptable. Throughout the movie, we follow the lives of a computer nerd, a desperate middle-aged spunky woman, a shy man looking for a mail order bride from Russia, a gay couple, and an arranged marriage taking place in India.

The characters in the film are dramatically different in and of themselves. Each person has their own specific qualities and needs they are looking for in a partner and they each have their own means to finding that special person. What I really liked was how they showed many different cultures and what their process was for finding a partner. In India, arranged marriages are nothing out of the ordinary. There is one specific matchmaker whose job is to help the bride-to-be pick out her future husband. The bride’s family is responsible for helping her pick her man. Usually the couple to be married doesn’t even meet until their engagement. In a different culture, some men purchase their wives based on their pictures.

There are so many different ways to finding love and this movie pretty much covers all of them! Other than the storyline, I really enjoyed the music used in film. Since the film was so cultural, the music went along with the images on the screen very well. Because it was a documentary film, the people being interviewed were very real and comfortable in front of the camera.

Overall, I enjoyed the film very much. If you are ready to hear some embarrassing dating stories, or even looking to find love yourself, I highly recommend seeing this movie. You never know, you might meet someone at the screening!