Materialists

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a professional matchmaker at the top of her game. But when she crosses paths with her struggling actor of an ex, John (Chris Evans), and wealthy, eligible bachelor Harry (Pedro Pascal), Lucy must rethink her notions of love and the price tag that comes with it.

Is it a rom-com? Is it a coming-of-age drama? Is it both? Is it trying too much? It’s rare in today’s box-office climate to be hyped for any romantic films on the big screen, especially with most love stories being slated straight for streaming. So, Celine Song’s Materialists naturally attracted a lot of anticipation, more so after the playwright-turned-filmmaker moistened our eyes with her powerful debut romance Past Lives. Much like that 2019 hit, her follow-up Materialists highlights Song’s unconventional approaches to genre tropes like love triangles and relationship priorities. Partly inspired by her own brief stint as a matchmaker in New York, Song injects doses of straight-faced observational humour, wholesome “old flame/new flame” romance, and even some dark socio-economic realities in Materialists. The only issue is that these doses can be imbalanced at times, leaving one with mixed feelings and a bittersweet taste.

What starts off as a biting satire on modern-day romance is diminished by an inconsistent tone and wooden characters. Delightfully natural performances can’t save the wooden characters. The deadpan dialogues are effective in scenes like when Lucy orders a Coke mixed with beer or John acts in verbose sleep-inducing plays. Also interesting is the seemingly hollow and emotionless work that goes behind these matchmaking companies in picking “perfect partners” in terms of their financial status and physical attributes. Such elements make Materialists more than just a tale of a woman choosing between the suave, rich guy (Pedro Pascal’s Harry) and the bitter, broke ex (Chris Evans’s John). But by the time the third act pulls off a surprising yet all-too-familiar romantic twist, the many threads Materialists tried to untangle get tied together a bit too conveniently. The three performers are all in top form here, especially Evans, enjoying his time away from Marvel and proving his mettle as a serious actor (much like his Materialists character). It’s only a shame then that these actors are brought down by one-dimensional character traits that hardly make any of them worth your liking or empathy. Materialists could have worked as a New York professional’s journey into arranging lovers for others, arranging lovers for herself, and finally finding herself in the process. Sounds trite, but think of a story cut in the same cloth as recent offerings like Joachim Trier’s Norwegian quarter-life crisis drama The Worst Person in the World or Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s universally relatable comedy series Fleabag.

Sadly, Materialists teases lofty ambitions but settles for less. Much like an odd sexual assault angle thrown in its turbulent storyline. In exploring the superficiality of matchmaking agencies and the dating culture today, Materialists briefly touches upon cases of how some of these ideal matches can turn out to be stalkers or assaulters. While Song’s screenplay thankfully doesn’t resort to any trauma porn to drive this point home, it still uses this subplot as a mere footnote to advance our confused protagonist, Lucy’s journey. Now, it’s unfair to compare Materialists with Past Lives just because both films pit a romantic trio. But it’s rather tragic that Materialists yet again proves Celine Song is a brilliant observer of love and the human condition in the social media age, and yet those ideas never fully land this time.