Great Film overall

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I saw this as a half of a double feature on a double date in the 1970s. Three of the four of us preferred the other film ("Marriage of a Young Stockbroker"?), but I liked this one and went back to see it again. It IS a funny film, but also a believable love story with (understandably) good chemistry between the two leads. And no other reviewer has mentioned that Bologna was pretty hot back in the day if you like those Big types. It is borderline painful to watch Renee Taylor's various "acts" as she skates close to some sort of showbiz fame--sort of a proto-Bridget Jones--but you have to admire the candor of these two writers in filming this autobiographical material, warts and all.

Renee Taylor and Joe, I'm full of bologna, star in this film which they both wrote.What's all the excitement here? Basically, this is the story of 2 born-losers from totally dysfunctional families.They meet at a group therapy session. There is definite chemistry between them but all hell breaks loose when they go to his house and meet his Italian family.There is really superb acting here by Olympia Dukakis and Paul Sorvino, as Joe's parents. Outbursts at their table are quite common, but after all, it all seems to boil down to the differences in religion as the two never let go of the fact that Miss Taylor is Jewish.The scene at the Jewish funeral for Taylor's father was absolutely obnoxious.The therapy session seasons are comical, but if this is a biography, the two should not have let their dirty laundry out.

Really nice to read all of the comments and know that the film was appreciated. I first saw the film in NYC as a sneak preview before 2001 Space Odyssey. My companion and I agreed that there was no reason to stay after Made For Each Other. I searched for that film in every TV schedule for more than ten years...it must have been practically every day, because when I did find it(and made my copy!)i never saw it again. Always the other movie of the same name with James Stewart. I found these comments because I was trying to find a copy of the DVD online, so if anyone hears of of how to find it...share!! the copy of my copy is getting old! the french would love this movie even now.

Saw this film for the first time tonight, on Turner Movie Classics.Having missed the first few minutes, and altogether ignorant of the film, I didn't know that it was 30 years old. But the principal's bright orange, full-length coat of an unidentified material, brought on a rush of uncertainty. She is no beauty, this woman - yet she reminds me of (somebody) Derisher, of "Nanny", only rubber-faced and unpretty.There's a great deal in common and feel with Neil Simmon's plays - the pain and torment of love among the unloveable, e.g., the girl friend kicks her boy friend in the groin and asks, "How much do you love me now?"). The parental years of the principals are identical to "Torchlight Trilogy" - grotesque and self-parody. The principal's vulnerability is totally believable and rather marvelous.Thirty years on, there's a lot of elemental clinical psychologyto "Made for Each Other". And one wants to keep that in mind.The Neil Simmon-like crying scene at the end was highly effective and moving until a moment before the clench, when one realized that one was a voyeur to a dreadful, cathartic and eventually successful, if not somewhat mangled, love match.I agree that this is "Like real life" but it's also Felinni-esque and somewhat grotesque. Probably the most moving scene for me was the New Year's Eve dinner scene when the mother gets hysterical, and her son leaves the room to tell her to friggin' SHUT UP! Killing. --And yet highly poignant with the poor Jewish guest sitting there getting slayed.I didn't dislike the movie, and did laugh out loud at times. It was utterly professional at all times, never manipulative - but there is a sense of passe to it that goes beyond the orange lip stick and tomato-red bola. En fin, glad that I saw it.