Thoughtful and well-acted, 'Materialists' is worth your time
Without breaking new ground or manipulation, Celine Song's ode to the pursuit of love strikes the heart and brain.
Relationships can be complicated, but making a good romantic comedy can be just as hard. You have to run over terrain that’s been used for decades, and the formula is tried and tested. Audiences connect dots faster than they do in a Netflix murder mystery, and the outcome can usually be strung together at least 30 minutes beforehand. The only way to defeat those obstacles is with good writing, a clear purpose, and actors who understand what they’re involved in.
Materialists, Celine Song’s follow-up to her Oscar-adored Past Lives, cuts through the bullshit to provide a strong example of how true love and relationships often coexist closely enough to be friends, but don’t spend as much time together as humans would like to think.
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) works for a match-making company that pairs lost souls together with the ultimate hope of marriage. Adore is the kind of company that treats weddings like World Series trophies, celebrating the fact that they lined up financials and types in a special way that led to holy matrimony. Johnson’s confident pairing expert starts to feel her world crumble when a client has a bad date, and she becomes entangled with two different men.
Harry (Pedro Pascal, smoother than silk) is the best man at one of Lucy’s trophy weddings, and has the rich lifestyle that wins many women over from the world of true love chasing. That comes in the form of John (Chris Evans), her ex-boyfriend who happens to show up at the same wedding with the puppy dog eyes of fate riding shotgun. What is a woman in her 30s who designs relationships to do with two different sorts of attractions?
Materialists doesn’t overcomplicate the formula, allowing Song’s writing to carry the feature home to a crowd-pleasing destination. The movie isn’t overly long, avoids recycled humor, and doesn’t settle for an easy landing with its climax. Lucy has to decide between rich love and poor love, or choose herself. Sometimes, two of those wants can be found in one person, but it’s not a sure thing. Do you run from something as complex as relationships to achieve stability and possibly more, or is it safer to stay on the shore where your footing is always assured?
Johnson improves with each non-superhero role she takes, showcasing the classy ease of her mom, Melanie Griffith, and the swagger of her dad, Don Johnson. As seen in The Peanut Butter Falcon and Cha Cha Real Smooth, she never seems to be trying too hard to create a person, and that helps the process sink into the viewer. Pascal is everywhere at the moment, but still manages to make the Playboy armor seem vulnerable with his work as Harry. Behind every rich piece of cash is something wounded, and Pascal builds around that notion.
But it’s Evans who steals the movie. While I wrote that his scene-chewing work as Lloyd Hansen in The Russo Brothers’ Gray Man was his best since playing Captain America, he cuts a deeper rug here as a loverboy who runs into the same female train that bulldozed him once before. Lucy and John were a thing for years, and then it all came apart due to the usual suspects: money, opportunity, and the idea of thinking there’s more out there. Evans wears it on his face and in his expressions like a man who has believed in love for too long.
A speech near the end, a Hail Mary of sorts for a romantic, is the best scene work from Evans since his breakout role in Puncture. It’s where a well-known movie star strips back the paint and finds a path to roles that may seem familiar, but can be reformatted just enough to make a dent.
Materialists leaves a lasting impression, leaving the viewer with a longing for the idea of someone out there being designed for them… or possibly just waiting in the wings. See it with a loved one, a friend, or a lover. It’s worth the time.