‘Materialists’ Review

‘Materialists’, Celine Song’s follow up to her critically acclaimed ‘Past Lives’, is a movie that tries to have it both ways; it wants to be a classic, beloved romantic comedy, where love conquers all, while also being a modern, cynical takedown of the current dating landscape. The resulting film is a mess of contradictions, confused and frustrating despite all of the admirable talent involved.

The film opens in prehistoric times, as a caveman gathers flowers and approaches a woman, fashioning a ring from one of the flowers as they sit together in silence. In a simpler time, before material pleasures, love blossoms.

We then cut to present day Manhattan, as Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a matchmaker, interviews potential clients, sets up dates, and follows up for post-date debriefs with all parties involved. The dating world Lucy manages is not a place for true love, it’s a marketplace in which each person is a commodity valued based on concrete, tangible facts: height, weight, ethnicity, income, etc. Successful relationships, successful marriages, are not so much about romance as they are about mutual interest, financial and otherwise.

While attending the wedding for one of her clients, Lucy meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), exactly the type of man her math tells her is a perfect match. He’s tall, stylish, charming and, perhaps most importantly, rich. While Harry sits with Lucy, flirting, cajoling her into going on a date with him, one of the caterers drops off Lucy’s quirky drink order – a coke and a beer. We don’t have time to appreciate what an absolutely wild drink order this is before Lucy recognizes the server as John (Chris Evans), her ex-boyfriend who lives in a rundown apartment while living as a starving artist, trying to break through in the New York theater scene. Thus we are immediately thrust into a love triangle, with Harry and John serving as rich vs poor foils of one another as they compete for Lucy’s love.

Throughout the film, there are plenty of opportunities to subvert the classic romantic comedy tropes, to do justice to all of the apt commentary about what makes up a successful relationship. Love is great, but ultimately there is so much that goes into a life together, that to pretend love is all that matters can be viewed as naive. In its handling of economic uncertainty, how people who come from poverty are desperate to escape the money anxieties that destroyed their parents’ relationships, ‘Materialists’ is unique and compelling. And yet the pull for the storybook romance, the “true love” of it all, crushes the movie’s ability to be anything so meaningful. All of the cutting commentary on the dating scene as a transactional and clinical hellscape is undermined by the overarching message that none of these concerns matter if you just love hard enough.

‘Past Lives’ was one of the more nuanced, humane love stories in recent memory and while Celine Song still exhibits an understated skill as director, lending a gentle touch and finding moments of humanity in scenes both big and small, ‘Materialists’ lacks the depth and heart-rending sincerity of that previous film. Song clearly is versed in the visual language of classic romantic comedies and uses that knowledge to her advantage at times, with her talking head interviews with potential clients, during which they espouse their increasingly absurd pre-requisites for any potential dates, hearkening back to the heartwarming confessionals that are interspersed throughout ‘When Harry Met Sally’. Song plays with the conventions of the genre to make more incisive commentary. If only she would have committed fully to the bit.

The cast all does their best with the story, even when romantic chemistry is lacking, but the performances suffer due to the script’s unwillingness to commit fully to being a pure romantic comedy or something more complex and interesting.

And ultimately these competing impulses are the film’s thematic downfall. Is it an earnest love story or a subversive takedown of the lies romantic comedies tell us? Turns out, when you play to both crowds, you end up as neither, only as a perplexing curiosity that leaves the audience more confused than satisfied.

Materialists
Rated R for language and brief sexual material.
Running Time: 1 hour and 57 minutes

Director Celine Song
Writers Celine Song
Stars Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal
Rating R
Running Time 117 Minutes
Genres Romantic Comedy