Parents' Guide to The Matchmaker

This is another movie that follows a man wanting to have more power and sexual control over women. A kind of feminist revenge fantasy, The Matchmaker shows men being punished for wanting subservient women. While it's clear that this film is motivated by subverting men's beliefs about having dominating and powerful roles in society and over women, the film doesn't go far enough or do anything surprising. Instead, the fantastical, mystical, and quasi-demonic ferocity of "woman" is wrought, which ends up with the argument that can be boiled down to: "Don't mess with women, or they'll put a curse on you," which is a reiteration of age-old tropes.

Almost the entire film focuses on Tarek, the man wanting to escape his life, instead of the far more interesting women in the film. Further, by the film's end, it's clear that rather than hammer home its initial message, the film seems to capitulate and ask for pity or empathy for Tarek, instead of punishing him to an eternity of service or pain. While this is a far more judicious conclusion and one that might make more conventional or conservative men happier, it isn't earned. The about-face happens suddenly and quickly, and there seems to be no reason for it except for a woman's sudden feeling of sympathy.