Film Review: Materialists

Romance is a genre that has been neglected a lot in the past decade or so. Back in the 1990s the genre was in abundance and the idea of “matchmaking” became a modern trope for romance back in the 2000s. Films such as The Ugly Truth and Hitch attempted to show love in a different light. Love is a transaction between two people, which leads to marriage, kids and eventually death. It is depressing but sadly realistic. The problem is that people want to be swooned and people watch romance films to remind them what love truly is. This brings us to Materialists, the latest film from filmmaker Celine Song, and this film attempts to again show us what love is.

As the title suggests, the film tells us from the start that we have become very materialistic when it comes to romance. We give flowers, presents, go for expensive meals and it is all in the effort to make someone fall in love with you. Money, power and value are all materialistic ideas that the film explores, but sadly it feels rather ugly to objectify love like this. In order to show the balance of all these ideas we have Pedro Pascal as Harry, a wealthy handsome gentleman, then we have Chris Evans as John, a down-on-his-luck actor who has no value to his name. In the middle of these two is Lucy, a professional matchmaker played by Dakota Johnson.

The narrative is pretty basic and predictable, as you would expect in a film such as this. The surprise with Materialists is that it hails from indie filmmaker Celine Song. Song’s previous film Past Lives discussed love as well, with that film exploring the idea of soul mates and meeting the right person. This time we look at love from an almost Hollywood-like perspective. The lights, ambiance and style of the film has that typical flair from bug budget, New York set, romantic films. Another similarity though is that the film is rather hollow and the characters do not feel that fleshed out. We don’t learn about their pasts or their family lives. Instead each character gives speeches and monologues about love and why love is important.

Materialists is a very preachy film and it attempts to sell you love, except love isn’t a product and the film fails to see that. If that is the message that the film wants to tell then it has done so in possibly the worst way possible. Dakota Johnson’s character is rather shallow and not the ideal person to be talking about love. There is even a sub-plot of the film about a sexual assault that feels very out of place. The idea is that Song is trying to tell us that love isn’t easy. Love can be complicated, dark and hard to define, but she lacks the cohesion to show these sides of love in her story. It is disappointing to see the film suffer like this, but Song and her cast do attempt to put on an entertaining show and it helps that everyone in the film is attractive enough for you to go along for the ride.

★★☆☆☆

2/5

Final Verdict:

Materialists can oftentimes feel shallow with its depictions of love. Value and worth are constantly measured against people as the characters compare their ideal partners. It is a rather toxic message to deliver to audiences, that love is a contract, an obligation and the film does contradict itself a few times with its message. You do feel like you’re being sold a product and that is essentially Dakota Johnson’s role in the film. Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans do their best in the film but the overall result is a rather hollow affair and doesn’t attempt to address real issues with relationships and people, it instead skirts around them which as an audience member I found rather irritating. Materialists looks the part but sadly it does not deliver.

Thanks for reading today’s blog!

Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions