Materialists

by Mike McGranaghan

About 20 minutes into Materialists, there’s a lengthy dialogue-driven scene between two of the main characters. Their conversation is filled with awkward pauses and curious gazes as they size each other up. I thought to myself, “Wow, this movie is really taking its time.” Then I realized how grateful I was for that. How many films these days let you breathe with the characters? So many feel there has to be something major happening every single second. This one lets you study the people at the center of the story – to look for the emotions behind their eyes, to read their body language. It felt good to just exist with them. For that reason, this is one of my favorite movies of the year.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a professional matchmaker working for an upscale company that caters to wealthy clients. She views romance as a business arrangement. The nine marriages she’s responsible for came courtesy of her skill at “checking boxes.” Want someone with a specific salary, a certain type of profession, or a high level of physical attractiveness? She’ll find them for you, for a price. During a wedding, she meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a rich, successful, and handsome businessman who checks all of her own boxes. Lucy also bumps into her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), whom she broke up with because he didn’t make enough money. Seeing him again nevertheless stirs up those old feelings.

This sounds like the setup for a very stupid romantic comedy. Materialists is far from stupid, though. Whereas a conventional story would be about which guy Lucy ends up with, this one is about why she ends up with one of them. Writer/director Celine Song (Past Lives) is interested in exploring what makes a relationship work. Let’s say you meet somebody who fits your criteria for a perfect mate. If you fit their criteria too, does that automatically mean you’ll be happy together? And what if someone doesn’t fit your criteria? Could you find happiness with them, or would an unchecked box or two inevitably lead to misery? These are the questions raised by Lucy’s interactions with Harry and John.

Tied together with her journey – and reflecting meaningfully on it – is an excellent subplot about Lucy’s efforts to match Sophie (Zoe Winters), a client with a poor track record.

The screenplay is impressively intelligent. No cheap jokes, no easy emotions. Lucy’s romantic uncertainty is played authentically, making it easy to become wrapped up in. Equal weight is given to Harry and John, as well. Both are good men seeking to find contentment with a partner. The former very much subscribes to the checked box theory, especially since Lucy considers him a “unicorn,” i.e. a guy with universally desirable qualities. The latter doesn’t, yet realizes it’s a harsh reality in today’s world and therefore accepts that his status as a struggling actor/catering company waiter places him fairly low on many women’s eligibility lists.

This stellar cast brings Song’s ideas to life with warmth and truthfulness. Johnson follows up last year’s Daddio with another sparkling turn. She allows us to see how Lucy has bought into the company line, perhaps to her own discomfort. The character’s vulnerability comes from her self-acknowledged materialism; having grown up poor, she doesn’t want to live adult life that way. Pascal is charming as Harry, infusing him with the self-confidence that comes from being aware of his unicorn status, but never allowing that to become narcissism. Evans gives John a sense of insecurity, as the poor guy convinces himself that he’s unworthy of Lucy, despite his obvious love for her.

Materialists has a lot of wonderful scenes in which the characters talk to – and, just as importantly, listen to – each other. I found myself smiling because of how honest the film is in those moments. We continue to get at least a couple color-by-numbers rom-coms every year. This picture is different, aiming to touch you on a deeper, more substantive level. It absolutely does that. We don’t get movies this smart about romance very often.

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