‘Materialists' review: A matchmaker is torn between Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans
Writer and director Celine Song's second feature, 'Materialists,' ruminates on the subject within the broad outlines of a romantic-comic triangle. That's the geometric shape of it, kind of. There's insight and wit here, coexisting with handy contrivances Song uses, somewhat sheepishly, to get her story to end up where it's going. How it gets there, and in what mood, makes it interesting.
Two years ago, the Korean Canadian filmmaker gave us 'Past Lives,' which, like 'Materialists,' could be described as routine romantic triangulation, subverted. With that beautiful achievement, Song's supple feature debut made the near-impossible look easy, in a story of the people we were before the people we become, and the bargains and longing and compromises connecting past to present.
'Materialists' is another tale of a decision point. It is Lucy's story, if not quite Dakota Johnson's movie. Rare for an American film of any sort, we learn what this Manhattanite earns annually (around $80 grand) as an employee of a classy, higher-end matchmaking firm called Adore.
This puts her somewhere in between the two men in her life. One is her ex, the struggling, somewhat tetchy actor/caterer John, played by Chris Evans. The other is Lucy's discreetly persistent suitor, the private equity dreamboat Harry, the one with an inhumanly clutter-free, $12 million pad in Tribeca. Pedro Pascal shifts into stealth mode for this portrayal, artfully suggesting forlorn corners of a determinedly curated personality.
Lucy meets Harry at the wedding of one of Lucy's former clients, who is marrying Harry's brother. Briskly, 'Materialists' plops John, catering the wedding, into the equation as he delivers Lucy's preferred drink in the same instant she tells Harry what she's ordering. He's the Radar O'Reilly of this scenario, and a reminder to Lucy of her own struggling years as an actress. Her past life with John, as we see in flashbacks, was full of wearying arguments about money. She called it off. He's still in love with her. Mired in it.
Filmmaker Song, who worked for a while as a matchmaker, plays with different ideas and conflicts as Lucy falls gently into Harry's world of exquisite luxury and enticing worry-freeness. Once too often in the screenplay, Lucy reverts to discussing her clients' relationships and her own wariness in clinical terms, with each new prospective mate checking a certain number of boxes. Her cynicism is borne of experience, with John as well as what she has seen, and often personally arranged, on the job.
There's a narrative swerve in 'Materialists' involving a client's sexual assault, on a date arranged by Lucy. It's not handled as a drastic tonal shift or a melodramatic convenience (it's all about the aftermath), but there is a queasiness, intentional yet a mite dubious, to its story presence as a life lesson for Lucy as much or even more than for her client.
Song has little interest in romantic comedy fizz, at least here. Besides the triangle premise, 'Past Lives' and 'Materialists' share a somewhat mysterious and valuable weight class: They're neither heavy nor light, but there's a deftly handled seriousness of purpose in the telling that worked unerringly in 'Past Lives' and more intermittently this time.
Johnson has been effective and affecting in many roles, and without her disarming naturalism, the entire 'Fifty Shades of Grey' trilogy would've collapsed underneath its own dreckiness. There is, however, a thin line between relaxed and not quite enough, and while Johnson and Evans relish the chance in 'Materialists' to play quasi-real people with reality-adjacent concerns, their scenes feel a little underpowered. By contrast, Pascal, even while playing a restrained version of a golden movie archetype, is so innately compelling on screen the movie can't help but lean his way.
The world needs more mixed-up, legitimately searching romantic serio-comedies; even when we forget the narrative particulars, we remember the emotional surprises, the way the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston film 'The Break-Up' (nearly 20 years ago!) lingers in the mind. In that movie, conventional formula fought hard with unconventional detours and some useful audience discomfort, and the result was a hit despite itself. I bring this up only because 'Materialists' is similarly conflicted, and intriguing. It may not be what 'Past Lives' was but already, it's lingering a little for me. It may make true love look all too Hollywood-easy in the end, but en route it's still a Celine Song film.
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'MATERIALISTS'
3 stars (out of 4)
MPA rating: R (for language and brief sexual material)
Running time: 1:56
How to watch: In theaters June 13
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