Materialists

Synopsis: A matchmaker entertains the possibility of a relationship with a new man, or her ex.

In art and entertainment, there are serious and unserious takes on single women’s lives.  Work and relationship issues are at the fore. Generally, shows and movies feature an appealing lead, setting and career aspirations. For example…

Celine Song’s Materialists stars Dakota Johnson as a successful matchmaker in Manhattan. Darren Star’s Emily in Paris features Lily Collins as a social media strategist for a marketing firm in, yes, Paris.

If you guessed that Star, the creator of the frivolous Sex and the City, has an unserious take and Materialists, written by the director of the sensitive Past Lives, is the serious take you are right.  Mostly, anyway. Before I get to that, we need to look at Materialists…

Dakota Johnson is Lucy, mid-thirties, living in Manhattan. NYC is a competitive dating arena. There are a lot of people to choose from- great. That’s the downside too. If someone doesn’t feel an instant connection and is unimpressed on a first date, it’s quickly onto the next.

Lucy is one of the top producers at the matchmaking service where she works.  She interviews potential clients on their hopes and desires. She learns their attributes. Apparently, most of the clients are straight. For some reason she meets clients at cafes. I mean, wouldn’t this happen at the office?

Lucy’s clients are above average in looks, earnings and social status–or two out of three anyway. So, if you are going to pay someone to find your next big love, it seems the wish lists are pretty long. And what do they want?

Men want women in their twenties, regardless of their own age. They should be  pretty and thin. Career/educational accomplishments might help. Women want men no older than forty-nine, unless they are close to forty-nine themselves, in which case those guys find them too old to date. Women want high earners who are tall. And not bald.

Lucy reminds one of her women clients to focus on which boxes her date checks, not on which he doesn’t check. A male client upbraids Lucy for setting him up with a fat forty year old. No mention on how much the woman weighs, but Lucy corrects him that his date is thirty-nine.

When we meet Lucy her boss is throwing her an office party because one of Lucy’s matches is getting married. She’s invited to the wedding, a six-figure affair at a luxury hotel. Because she looks like Dakota Johnson, she looks fantastic at the event. She’s discreetly fishing for clients. The groom’s brother, Harry (Pedro Pascal), is at her table, but he’s not interested in becoming a client. He tells her that he’s in private equity. When she says she’s a matchmaker, he says she must know a lot about love. She smiles and says, no, she knows a lot about dating. He asks her on a date. Because he is personable and looks like Pedro Pascal, she gives him a try.

Harry, being a super rich guy, woos her with lavish dates. She tells him he could do better than her. He says material assets are cheap; he’s looking for someone he can respect and trust.

After the end of a five year relationship, Lucy’s been voluntarily celibate. She used to date John (Chris Evans), but their relationship became frayed over money issues. She misses him. Maybe because he is a sweet guy. Maybe because he looks like Chris Evans.

Lucy runs into John when he is catering  an event. He is still a broke ass actor.  He invites her to the new play he is in and she goes, bringing Harry as her date. Huh? I guess this is very evolved… on second thought, no, this is weird. Even weirder, John invites the woman he probably still loves and her new boyfriend to join the cast at a neighboring bar.

I felt badly for Chris Evans’ character who can’t afford more than dinner at a food cart and a dumpy apartment that he shares with roommates who borrow his charger without asking and leave used condoms around the apartment. Very ewww. But then I started thinking about how nice things are for Chris Evans with his Marvel Universe money and twenty-something wife. He also looks really good in a white, cable knit sweater like he wore in Knives Out. 

Then I started thinking about how I didn’t like Dakota Johnson in the role of Lucy, because even though she has screen charisma, she gives the same basic performance in each of her movies. Or maybe I didn’t like her smug character. At one point, she has a crisis of conscience about a work situation, which should make her character more sympathetic. But she can’t sell it.

And one more big thing; the unrealness of Lucy’s lifestyle.  Lucy and Harry are candid about their material worth. For example, when Lucy asks Harry the price of his Tribeca penthouse, he reveals that the place is worth $12 million. Lucy offers that she makes 80 K. Okay, so how does she afford a nice apartment (no roommates) in a ‘good’ neighborhood in Manhattan and afford her killer wardrobe? After paying at least 50K in rent, along with state & fed taxes, she’d be shopping at H&M. But, just like Emily in Paris, she enjoys a nice flat and a wealth of clothes. But that show is a fantasy–remember, COVID didn’t even happen in Emily’s Paris– so we let it go that her salary and spending don’t add up.

And about her dating lives? We know that pretty & cheery Emily can have whichever hot straight guy she wants (like Gabriel or Alfie). Any heartache is short-lived. Emily in Paris is unserious, not a reflection of real-life.

Likewise, pretty & jaded Lucy can also have the hot guy she picks (like Harry or John). We expect that Materialists has  something to say about love and coupling. The business of matchmaking is interesting and entertaining. The movie’s takeaway is that people are going to love someone even if it’s inconvenient and doesn’t make sense on paper. The problem is that Lucy’s who-to-choose predicament doesn’t feel high stakes–unlike the superior, heart wrenching triangle in Past Lives.

Still, I’ll be looking forward to seeing what Celine Song does next and, in spite of myself, I will be hate-watching the next season of Emily in Paris.

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  C+

Cut to the Chase:  A decent dramedy about love in the city. I liked it well enough, but thought it would deliver more.

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