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From the play The Matchmaker by Thornton
Wilder
A celebrated matchmaker is out to make a
match for herself.
This one is a bundle of
contradictions...kind of hard to
categorize...but there are many good and
bad
things about it:
- Good: It's
a very funny script, full of good sight
gags and funny lines.
- Bad: Many of
the actors have no clue how to deliver
these lines.
- Good: The plot
is intricate, but it all works out in the
end.
- Bad: The
ending (Walter Matthau suddenly, after
vehemently denying any
feelings for Streisand, softens up and
proposes to her in the last 5 minutes of
the movie)
- Good: The
costumes: big, bright, bold
- Bad: The
costumes: overwhelming and tacky
- Good: Half of
the musical numbers are great!
Wonderful tunes, big dance sequences,
color, movement, very nice.
- Bad: Many of
the songs (especially the tender
introspective ones) are just awful if not
downright embarrassing
- Good: Barbara
Streisand.
- Bad: Barbara
Streisand
- Good: Walter
Matthau playing (as he does so
well) a woman hating curmudgeon
- Bad: Walter
Matthau trying to sing. Oh god.
Well, anyway. You get the idea. If you
love musicals, and don't hate Barbara
Streisand's incredibly overblown and
annoying persona, which can also be
endearingly funny and sweet, this is worth
a watch. Have a book or a fellow
musical maven nearby so that you have
someone to talk to when the plot slows
down or one of the really awful numbers
pops up...but you'll be singin' and
dancin' during the good parts.
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