Film Review: "Materialists"
Celine Song's newest film is a funny, poignant, and well-acted rumination on the stakes and struggles of modern dating and relationships.
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Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
If you know anything about my tastes in popular culture, you’ll know that I’ve long been a fan of the rom-com. I love reading and watching them, I love writing them, and I love talking and writing about them. And, much as I like those entries of the genre that follow the rules and the tropes, I’m also a sucker for a romantic comedy that isn’t afraid to play fast and loose with the rules, that’s not going to back down from challenging some of the established conventions of the formula.
One such recent film is Celine Song’s Materialists. I was quite a fan of the director’s Past Lives, which was one of those slow-burn films that saves its most devastating gut-punch for the final moments, and it sticks with me to this day. I was thus eagerly anticipating this one, in no small part because of the cast. I continue to be fascinated by Dakota Johnson’s stardom and, like any other breathing person, I continue to be drawn in by the incandescent charisma offered by both Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. The film is very much in the tradition of the romantic comedy, yet at the same time it’s not afraid to play with some of the conventions and emotions associated with the genre.
When the film begins, Dakota Johnson’s Lucy is part of a matchmaking service, Adore and, though she is remarkably successful in her pairings, one can’t escape the sense that she isn’t entirely satisfied with her life. Things get more complicated when she meets Pedro Pascal’s Harry Castillo at the wedding of one of her recent matches, after which the two begin a relationship. At the same time, a fateful encounter with her ex, John (played by Chris Evans), also at the wedding, complicates her life even further. As the film goes on, Lucy starts to find that all of her assumptions about her relationship and her feelings for John aren’t nearly as clear-cut, or as resolved, as she thought. Yes, Harry offers her the chance to live the life of privilege and wealth that she’s always wanted, or thought she wanted, but is she going to be truly happy?
Dakota Johnson is one of those actresses whose acting style–or lack thereof–has excited a lot of commentary ever since she appeared in Fifty Shades of Grey, and I’ll admit that I find her a compelling, if often strange, performer. I’m not sure that I’d go so far as to say that she is wooden or is utterly lacking in talent–though there are quite a few people who would go that far–but there is something a little otherworldly about the way that she delivers her lines and moves through the space of a film. As it turns out, though, Lucy is just the type of person she was born to play.
Even though most of the film is told through Lucy’s perspective, I’m not sure that I’d go so far as to say that I understand her. To be sure, the film does allow us to see why it is that she would leave a man who was absolutely committed to her: to put it bluntly, he’s just too poor to give her the life that she wants and feels she deserves. At the same time, Johnson’s sphinx-like performance means that there’s always a part of her that denies such easy categorization. The more that the narrative seems to explain who she is and what explains her, the less that it seems to really clarify anything.
This isn’t a criticism, mind you. In fact, I think that’s part of what makes the film so rich and so fascinating. Thanks to Song’s direction and Johnson’s performance, we’re led to sit with our discomfort and our lack of clarity about our own desires and aspirations when it comes to sex and relationships. And, since Lucy has a front-row seat to the horrors of modern dating–ranging from men who are insistent that they only want to date someone in their mid-20s because they “just get along with them better” to an actual sexual assault–we also bear witness to just how vapid and sometimes downright terrible people can be. In a world in which everyone seems to be part of a loneliness epidemic, this particular approach really does hit home.
While Lucy might remain a mysterious figure, the same isn’t true of either Pascal’s Harry or Evans’ John. Both of these men are more transparent in their desires than the object of their affection. Pascal excels at creating sensitive yet troubled men, and Harry is no exception. While he seems to genuinely love Lucy and to want to try to build a life with her, he is also riddled with deep-seated insecurities and, as it turns out, he actually went through with a procedure in which his legs were broken and then allowed to regrow, so as to gain height. It’s a turn that comes late in the film, but it makes sense. Just as importantly, it also shows how fundamentally insecure so many men are, particularly when it comes to their height.
Chris Evans’ John is at first a simpler character. He loves Lucy, and he loves acting, and he’s desperate to make both succeed. I love seeing Evans in roles like this one, where his inner soulfulness can really be allowed to flourish and, though he isn’t without his flaws–among other things, he seems to have a bit of a temper–the film also makes it clear that he truly does want to be with Lucy and is willing to do the things he needs to do to give her the life she desires. If there’s one person in this film who seems to have a real handle on the emotional stakes, it’s John (and, by extension, Evans himself).
The ending is a remarkably happy one, since it ends with a proposal (this is a romantic comedy, after all), and the last scene we have is of various couples, including our central couple, getting their marriage license. At the same time, Materialists is one of those rom-coms that is about bigger things than just the courtship and romance of its two leads, though that is obviously its main narrative focus. Instead, it’s about what it is that motivates us in our fast-paced and deeply materialistic culture, in which everyone is seeking for something that seems to always elude them. While some might disagree, I found Materialists to be emotionally resonant and poignant, even as it also made me think more deeply about the world in which we live. Celine Song has delivered yet another affective triumph!