Written by: Celine Song
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Zoë Winters, Marin Ireland
Rating: [4.5/5]
Of the many tenets that make romance successful, the one component that I’ve always argued needs to be evident is strong chemistry between the leads. Long have I held the belief that even the best writing and directing could make up for a romance that does not have leads that make the audience yearn for them to come together. Well, there’s a first time for everything, and leave it to Celine Song to craft a film that would completely change the way one can enjoy a film within this genre through the sheer power of her writing ability.
Thriving as a matchmaker in New York City, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) must contend with the extremely high and borderline unrealistic standards her clients possess. Even with the high bars she needs to clear, she manages to succeed. When attending the wedding of a couple she brought together, she meets a wealthy bachelor, Harry (Pedro Pascal), who takes quite the liking to her. While potential exists between them, she also happens to reunite the same day with her ex-boyfriend, John (Chris Evans), which begins to complicate things.
Anyone who watches enough films in their lifetime will inevitably find directorial voices that connect with you in ways not many others can. Celine Song firmly stands in that category for me in the way she views love. She completely rocked my world in her feature directorial debut, Past Lives, where it poses the battle between the realities of romance and the idealized storybook dream of it. In a way it feels impossible to not speak on that film when writing about Materialists because this film operates as its inverse, especially in the decisions the characters make throughout. The pursuit of security versus love becomes central in what lies ahead for Lucy and Song crafts it in spectacular fashion.
While this film mostly operates as a romance, it utilizes romantic comedy conventions. All of the marketing for the production alludes to this idea. From watching the trailer for the film, it made me question exactly what Song wanted to accomplish through this story. Everything within that trailer displays every beat a standard romantic comedy would present, but it left me intrigued to see what someone of Song’s prowess would bring to differentiate herself. This occurs in delivering not only comedic circumstances for Lucy to navigate through her clients but also by highlighting the hurtful and dangerous components of the dating world.
The beginning of the film focuses aplenty on interviews Lucy conducts with her clients where they demonstrate how they not only want but demand characteristics in a partner that describe .01% of the population. Calling what they look for a needle in a haystack would be generous, but Lucy’s mission remains providing them exactly what they want in a partner no matter the ridiculousness that spews out of their mouth. As much as these scenes serve as comedy, they do exhibit the sheer amount of superficiality in the dating world, where physical and demographic attributes in an individual matter more than what lies on the inside. It, for one, makes me so happy I met my wife at 18 years old and did not need to wade into these waters.
As much as this film delves into the silliness, it also displays the fears individuals rightfully carry when dating, not just emotionally, but also physically. This element serves as the biggest risk Song takes in this story, and many argue about its effectiveness and the sensitivity with which it gets handled. However, it rightfully demonstrates the realities of the dating world, especially one women have to take extra care in through no fault of their own. This focal point matters greatly, and I applaud the film for not fearing to take it on.
Lucy’s clients receive plenty of attention, but the core of this story lies in the romance of our lead character and the push and pull she feels between what each of the men in this love triangle provides her. This particularly follows romantic comedy conventions, where she must choose between a handsome rich man that checks every box or the working-class man who may not have everything a girl dreams of but loves her like no one else. Anyone who has watched any romantic comedy can take a guess on who Lucy will choose. However, uncertainty lies when learning exactly what Lucy yearns for in a man and how much financial security matters to her. In fact, she presents this information as frankly as any character in this genre of film would.
The most surprising element of this film did not necessarily lie in what it did well but in its one deficiency. A deficiency that would sink any romance film but did not in this case, which is the lack of chemistry between the leads. While this film talks about love in such an effervescent manner that will make audiences swoon, it curiously does not display it in the romantic entanglements of its lead character. Whether this fault lies in the cast assembled for this role, namely Dakota Johnson, who has been hit-or-miss with me for most of her filmography. When she makes the big decision between the two men, it does not feel like this crescendo many films of this genre count on. It raises the question of how a film with a deficiency can possibly succeed and it all comes back to the director.
Celine Song views love the same way I do. Neither love nor marriage is difficult. The way she writes about and frames this narrative conveys a beauty that makes me return to Past Lives and how they operate as a companion piece for one another. While one opts to live in the realities of love and marriage, the other chooses to live in the ideal. Our leading ladies make the decisions they feel they need to make in that particular moment and also match the glitz and glamour of their budgets and their cast. In my books, Song has hit it out of the park in both of her directorial efforts and proves to be one of the directors that will forever have my attention. Here she crafts something so well-written and fully realized that it does not faze me one bit that the chemistry does not necessarily work between these leads.
Films with Josh 
