Materialists: a 'stylish' and 'intelligent' romantic drama

"The world has got confused about what constitutes a romantic comedy," said Donald Clarke in The Irish Times. And director Celine Song's follow-up to 2023's Oscar-nominated "Past Lives" is certainly a complicated proposition. It "has the shape" of a romcom: the film stars Dakota Johnson as Lucy, a professional matchmaker who earns her living hooking up high-flying New Yorkers with suitable – and suitably wealthy – partners.

When she meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a handsome, tall and hugely rich financier at the wedding of one of her "matches", it seems her destiny is sealed. Yet at the same event, she bumps into her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor working as a waiter. The scenario could have made a "cracking Doris Day flick". Except Song doesn't seem "particularly interested in generating laughs" or warmth. Instead, her screenplay is full of "sharp, often cynical observations on this society's commodification of human relations". "Materialists" is a little puzzling, but it's clever and "gorgeous", and "it has the welcome oddness of a future classic".

"Stories that foreground the economics of romance are hardly new," said Wendy Ide in The Observer – from Jane Austen to "Sex and the City". The problem with this one is that it lacks depth. Also, it's so preoccupied with asset valuations that it "neglects to include any normal conversations".

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

At its best, "Materialists" is both "a romantic cliffhanger" and a story about "complex adult realities", said Danny Leigh in the Financial Times. Yet just as it starts to feel truly promising, it slumps into a "dramatically flat" third act. And for a film about romance, there's weirdly little chemistry between the three leads. "Stylish", "funny" and "intelligent" as it is, it's a bit anticlimactic.