Materialists (United States, 2025)

Materialists, Celine Song’s follow-up to the sublime Past Lives, is a rom-com on Prozac. Weighed down by a flat performance from Dakota Johnson, the movie shifts into low-gear after an upbeat, promising first act. Johnson’s lack of chemistry with Chris Evans prevents embers from ever catching fire, neutering the viewer’s interest in those two achieving a believable nirvana. Playing the thankless role of the third edge of the romantic triangle, Pedro Pascal bring a much-needed energy to the otherwise languorous production, but it’s not enough. 

Although a lion’s share of Materialists’ problems can be found in the miscasting of Johnson, there are also issues with pacing. The film starts out with a series of fresh, breezy scenes but it sags during the middle parts and grinds to a halt during the prolonged ending, which feels almost Return of the King-ish in its unwillingness to let go. 

The movie seeks to pull back the curtain and go behind-the-scenes of the lucrative high-end matchmaking industry, where five-figure fees go toward curated dates between a man and woman who check all the right boxes. Lucy (Johnson) is one of the best at Adore, having brokered dates that have resulted in nine marriages. Currently, she’s celebrating #9 while struggling to find a good match for 39-year old Sophie (Zoe Winters), a client she desperately wants to make happy. As for Lucy’s own prospects – she’s single but doesn’t seem especially bothered by her lack of a romantic (or sex) life. In order for her to date, she only needs one box checked: the man has to be super-wealthy. Enter Harry (Pascal), who contrives to sit next to her at the wedding reception. He’s suave, tall, rich, and interested. Lucy initially rebuffs his advances, citing a “mismatch” between them (she argues he’d be much better off with someone ten years younger than she is). Eventually, however, her defenses crumble but there’s an issue – she’s still in love with the one-who-got away: John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor whose lack of financial ambition is the reason she dumped him in the first place. 

The movie provides pointed insight into the underbelly of this business and the unrealistic expectations of both men (who are often looking for women who are “fit” and much younger) and women (who often haven’t completely abandoned the Prince Charming fantasy). Song’s dialogue is at its best when highlighting these differences – there are some barbed interactions between Lucy and possible male clients that highlight this. For a while, I thought the film might be straying closer to The Devil Wears Prada territory than the toothless arena where it eventually settles. 

Throughout her acting career, which got a boost from Fifty Shades of Grey, Dakota Johnson has always worked better in supporting roles than as a lead. This is evident in Materialists where her performance comes across as contrived. There’s no sparkle or spark in Lucy and this makes it hard to care who she ends up with. Chris Evans seems along for the ride; his acting is fine but he’s struggling with an underwritten character. Pedro Pascal ups the ante when he’s around (and the film’s best scene is the one in which Harry and Lucy go out to dinner) but, after building him up during the early-going, the screenplay seems to lose interest as it evolves. 

Romantic comedies are strange beasts. They usually aren’t very funny – the “com” aspect being more about tone than generating laughs – but the “rom” element demands that the viewer become a party to the realization of a fantasy. Materialists contains some amusing sequences but the romantic entanglements are never compelling. This is especially true of the Lucy/John pairing. Because this couple is so vanilla and uninteresting, I never found myself rooting for them to find true love and live happily ever after. I was always more interested in Harry than the screenplay appears to be. Song tries to imbue Materialists with some of the same longing that was the hallmark of Past Lives but the characters aren’t as vividly drawn and Johnson lacks the acting facility to give Lucy the necessary depth. I found Materialists to be overlong but not unpleasant but there’s a lack of balance in the way the secondary characters and side-plots are more engaging than the bland central romantic triangle.

Materialists (United States, 2025)