The Matchmaker 2023 Movie Review
Tarak is an office worker with a dull marriage and a diminished relationship with his daughter. When he becomes infatuated with a female colleague, he accepts a strange invitation to a resort in the middle of the desert that promises to help him meet his soulmate.
As soon as he arrives there, he finds everything a bit strange but goes along with it until he realizes that he might be in over his head. When he tries to leave, he is knocked out and forced to take part like all the other men at the resort.
The resort is run by a woman who receives help from a spirit whose goal is to punish men who have abused women. Tarak is there by accident and the woman he followed is a mentee of the person who runs the resort.
She chooses to take on the position of her mentor and do things differently, freeing Tarak from his bondage and allowing him a second chance at fixing the relationships in his life.
Hussam Al Harthi plays Tarak, the only character with a significant role in the film and his performance is almost as soulless as the slaves at the resort. Al Harthi does capture the meekness of Tarak initially but that’s the only emotion of his that comes across well.
By the end of the film, a small semblance of a message can be gleaned and it is a noble message to put across, even if it isn’t executed in an effective manner.
The narrative is just vague and lacks any kind of structure. Tarak’s character is shown to be looking for something more but why exactly he is in that position is never explained.
The whole business behind Hessa, Siba, and Salma is even more unclear and the ending does very little to fix that. The basic idea of helping women in distress is obvious but none of their motivations are explored beyond the surface.
The film is visually dull and the desert or the resort aren’t eye-catching locations. There is a very gloomy hue throughout that doesn’t help the tedious story.
The Matchmaker (2023) is a film that barely makes sense and leaves too much for the audience to figure out on their own. It is not a very long film which is one of the few saving graces in a narrative that is quite paper-thin. The performances are mediocre, relying mostly on the efforts of its lead actor who doesn’t produce his best in this outing.
