A movie to put a smile on your face, even if it can't keep it there: the gentle political comedy yields too graciously to the routine romantic comedy. Janeane Garofalo, a campaign worker for a Massachusetts Senator desperately behind in the polls, is dispatched to Ireland to trace the candidate's roots (and boost his standing), but the center of the search turns out to be a coastal village in the heat of the annual Matchmaking Festival: perfect surroundings for Garofalo's chip-on-the-shoulder persona ("Oh, yes. I'm so very Mary Tyler Moore. Everyone says so"). Plenty of buoyant Irish ambience, some dexterous comic touches — e.g., the bumping-heads motif -- and a very affectingly acted heart-attack by Milo O'Shea. With David O'Hara, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jay O. Sanders, and Denis Leary; directed by Mark Joffe. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd
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