Our Son, the Matchmaker (1996 TV Movie) User Reviews

Ellen "Barstyn"?

[RealityFanJen · 6/10 · 16 November 2012]

Did anyone else notice in the opening credits that Ellen Burstyn's last name is spelled Barstyn?? I had to double check, but it is! Is this a goof, or is there a legit reason? I don't know if it's spelled wrong in the closing credits because of how Hallmark advertised the next movie over them, but I'm curious if anyone else noticed this.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie. It was nice watching Julie and Steve fall in love all over again. It was kind of cold the way she dropped Kevin, but I guess it's always best to follow your heart.

I agree with another poster about being more interested in Julie and Steve's relationship as teens than as adults. They could've centered the entire movie on that! But I am partial to that time period, anyway. Such a simpler time, but yet still apparently filled with scandal...

I also enjoyed Julie telling her mother she was done and walking away. So many times, these types of movies show women getting bullied by overbearing mothers and the women taking the abuse forever. I was glad Julie moved on, even if it meant leaving her mother behind.

Well worth watching

[jewelch · 6/10 · 17 May 2021]

I really enjoyed watching this. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 5/16/21.

I agree with Sheila Beers above

[BeenThere1969 · 9/10 · 9 August 2005]

And by coincidence I was originally from Indiana. I had a somewhat similar circumstance when I was a teen, and there was a guy back then I should have married and I didn't. I had a mother like the woman in this movie too. This movie shows how life's regrets can turn out. That is a good lesson to learn. It is a good TV movie. Nothing to be ashamed of. Even my husband was interested. Actors were good, especially Anne Jillian and Ellen Burstyn as the formidable mother who forces her teen to give up her baby. Movies do not always have to be about enormously serious or horrible subjects to have a good message! Consider this movie to be a slightly better than average made for TV movie with a subject that is credible to those of us who grew up in the 50s and 60s, when an unmarried teen was shunned more than you younger people can believe.

Always Follow Your Heart

[Sheila_Beers · 7 June 2004]

I believe the best advice in this picture is "Always follow your heart" regardless of your age. The unwed expectant mother was coerced into giving up her child for the convenience of her middle-aged parents, not for her own good as they told her. Giving up the child was against her better judgment, and she lived to regret it every day of the next 28 years. She also regretted missing an early marriage to the child's father, her first love. It turned out the child's father had left an unhappy, loveless marriage and was available to marry his first love, the child's mother. In the end, the couple followed their hearts and married, with their minister son performing the ceremony.

Young people should realize that, as people get older, they have far more regrets about the things they DID NOT do than about the things they did. Life has so few second chances, and it is better for people to follow their hearts in the first place.

Tear-jerker trying hard not to be a weepy

[khatcher-2 · 4/10 · 12 April 2003]

However, the ladies of all ages will lap it up, no doubt; at least the opposite sex understand what it is to be a mother, and most of us men try to fathom out what it is to be a father. Whether changing nappies is not at all my favourite occupation and trying to get those bottled baby-foodstuffs into errant toothless mouths must rank very high on household duties preferably left to its mother, has absolutely nothing to do with the matter.

Some good interpretations here, and a good story idea; the handling of the matter, limited to rather scanty TV-production concepts, gives the film a rather over-mellowy taste with not much new to offer. An insipid way of delivering the goods, and in the end the outcome is so forseeable during the last 20 minutes or so, even my wife dozed off, and I was jumping up to the computer to get the on-line scoring in the Barcelona-Deportivo match, hoping the away team would do something rather good. They did. This film did not.

Better by far is Mike Leigh's magnificent "Secrets and Lies" (qv) which touches on the same subject matter, but with Brenda Blethyn playing a far superior part.

this is my story too

[herbbaucom · 10/10 · 9 June 2006]

I too am one of those to whom God gave a second chance to marry my high school love. It took Julie and Steve 28 years. It took me 38 years, but I am a slow learner in all of life's most important lessons. We parted when we were both 18, and then were married by my brother when we were both 55. We are now age 70, and thank God every day that we have the chance to grow old together. Ironically, my eldest son is the only one of our children (three each0 that supports us now. And this child truly considers my wife as his mother in every way except by birth, and he is so very much like Scott Adams. My wife cannot view this movie with me. It hits too close to home for her. I just sit there and sob all the way through it. I've seen the movie 6 times, and I cried just as hard the 6th time as I did the first time. But it is a good cry. A catharsis. I can't tell you how grateful I am to all those who made this movie. It told the world that there is always hope. It is never too late.

The guy who plays the son is creepy.

[tmoliver-773-598143 · 4/10 · 17 January 2019]

The guy who plays the son is creepy. His facial expressions, manner of speaking, and inappropriate smiles gave me the heebie-geebies...

I am a man, I love sappy movies, so be it !

[gtsiebert · 10/10 · 16 March 2009]

As far back as I can remember, I have always been a sucker for good story true or not, where I got caught up in the story and expressed emotion. Every single time! All I have got to say is "Sappy Men Unite"! This movie and one entitled "Little White Lies", is another Ann Jillian movie where it may not be sappy from start to finish, but it ends sappy. Other than a sappy love story, my other favorite kind of movie is where justice prevails and the good guy's kick a little butt. I will have to wait until another time when this plays to record it, whenever that will be? As far as my own personal story that helps me connect with sappy movies, like everyone else, we all have a person in our lives that we had the right feelings for, but it was the wrong time in our lives. I was 20 when I met this individual and she struck a very strong chord in my heart at the time, we socialized together, but I never created the right opportunity to let her know how I felt. Like most of us, we regret not knowing what might have been, basically lost opportunities! Under the circumstances, life for both us went in the direction that it was meant to go. Although for that brief time when I was 20-22 years of age, it was both awkward, new and exciting. When you feel strong feelings for someone for the first time, it is awkward, exhilarating and kind of scary. You always live your life believing that you have to have all or some of your ducks in a row, to pursue those feelings even if it may not come at an ideal time in your life, but I know now that is not correct. Living our life in fear or what will happen or what might happen, is no way to live your life. Even though I would give anything to live that time over again and perhaps correct a few mistakes made out of being insecure and scared, as well as to feel that way again, I do not regret the direction my life took.

I too had a second chance to love and be loved (Out of the Blue)

[snowdrop7-1 · 10/10 · 1 June 2009]

My Story starts back in 1959, when I married my best friend, I was 19, he was 23. We separated and divorced in 1969. My young next door neighbor would sometimes look after my "Treasures" while I went out with my girlfriends. He was such a great young guy.I moved away in 1971 and later married again.I had another little girl,another "Treasure" as I called them. Once more that marriage ended after 20 years,but,we remained good friends. There had always been something missing in my life, (and now I know what!) In 2003 I was at a local market and I looked up and saw "him" after all those years, we recognised each other. We at first met up to touch base with our lives and children He would come over for a meal and so on. He met up with "The Treasures " again, they were so happy to see him after all that time .(32years)I met his kids and liked them from the start. And Then----- suddenly it hit us. So, "Julie and Steve"I know what it's like to be given another chance of Love, Respect,Total Trust and Contentment with someone from the past.If you're lucky enough to have something like this run by you, grab it, run with it,and thank God for the Wisdom you received from your past. By the way, We have 10 perfect G'children between us. How good is that? I am blessed.

Heart felt Story

[mvengelmann · 10/10 · 3 September 2020]

I appreciated the reality of the movie. My mother had a similar situation and was sent to live with her aunt. Outcomes are different but the love for child and care for one another the same. I think the actors chosen did a nice job portraying the story.

True Story

[thatstracy-1 · 8/10 · 4 December 2017]

http://people.com/archive/our-son-the-matchmaker-vol-36-no-8/

This is a true story, as seen in the above link to the People Magazine article regarding this story.

It is a heart-felt story and a true one. My favorite kind.

The stories of young mothers being forced into adoptions that were "closed or private" in prior decades are many. Many children are still wondering where their biological parents are.

A surprising love story with a twist!

[unlvrebels-53531 · 10/10 · 22 April 2021]

Wow! Probably one of the best Hallmark movies we've seen; albeit, ftom the 90s. Great acting from EVERYONE, especially Ann Jillian, and with a plot twist to boot. Our hearts were overjoyed even though we couldn't stop crying. All the people who rated this movie high were spot on. Brava!