MATCH ME IF YOU CAN - Mark Reviews Movies

Match Me If You Can, Vertical

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 10, 2023

There's the willing suspension of disbelief, and then there's the idea of trying to accept that the main characters of Match Me if You Can couldn't find dates. Obviously, the notion of very attractive and charming people playing everyday, hopeless-in-romance losers is to be expected in romantic comedies, but director Marian Yeager's movie takes it to a slightly different level.

These two are intended to be perceived as "unmatchable," meaning that, of all the countless people who have signed up for a particular dating website in this story, there's not a single other human being with whom they're compatible in terms of personality. Beyond the fact that Georgina Reilly and Wilson Bethel—who play the allegedly helpless and, by the movie's own logic, wholly off-putting main characters—would probably be swarmed with potential suitors on such a site if each one just included a throwaway picture, there's something deeper that's wrong with this premise. These two would have to be unappealing on every conceivable level of their lives.

Instead, they're just a couple of nerds with fairly common and relatively mainstream interests within the realm of geekdom. These characters have good, well-paying jobs, and indeed, Bethel's Riley has created and operates the dating site at the center of the plot—a website that has become so popular that even the hint of a scandal involving it becomes an item of national interest.

As for Reilly's Kip, she has a few close friends, meaning there are at least three men in the world who find her company to be pleasing and worthwhile, and likes to have hypothetical discussions involving two of the most popular movie/TV franchises on the planet. When one thinks of someone who couldn't find a steady relationship or even a date under any circumstances, these two wouldn't spring or, for that matter, amble to mind.

Let's try to ignore that unlikely aspect of the setup for Betsy Morris' screenplay for the moment and aim attention toward the rest of the story, which isn't much more convincing. Kip is sad and lonely, because her few dates with fellow nerds end quickly, presumably on account of the fact that she's just too nerdy for them. This idea, of course, is tossed aside during a zombie role-playing game, when a bunch of participants prove that her musings on superheroes aren't too outlandish to consider, and one just wonders why Kip doesn't ask any of these people, who clearly share most of her interests, on a date.

See, we're getting back into the weeds of the fundamental flaw and inconsistency of the premise, so let's move on to Riley. He's that rare breed, an actually successful entrepreneur and dedicated family man, who has hired all of his relatives—except his much younger sister, on whom he dotes with almost paternal affection—for his business. If there is a problem with Riley, it's that he devotes most of his time to maintaining the site, mostly because he doesn't socialize—except when he's volunteering at a local animal shelter. The guy is clearly a non-starter when it comes to having any appeal to a potential romantic partner, huh?

Anyway, the plot has Kip taking the site's personality profile test while drunk one night and receives an automated email the next day, saying that she is incompatible with everyone else who has registered and should probably get a dog if she wants company. After a blog post about the experience becomes an online viral sensation, Riley's family decides to start a legal campaign against her. If that sounds like a dull setup for both a romance and a comedy, there is the scene in which Kip and Riley, who doesn't tell her about his role in the site so that their relationship and the plot can have a contrived conflict, finally meet-cute. It's in an office lobby and revolves around Kip trying to pet a pufferfish, sending it flying across the room twice, bonding her and Riley in their rescue efforts.

In other words, the whole of Match Me if You Can strains credulity, in terms of its plot, its characters (Both Reilly and Bethel are as engaging as possible here, although that defeats the central idea yet again), and its sense of humor. This is a romantic comedy in which the typical formula eventually becomes a benefit, if only because it gives us something definitively reliable and comprehensible amidst the rest of the movie's nonsensical trappings.

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