Lucy works for a matchmaking company and has a client list full of women who want to marry a rich guy. So does Lucy (Dakota Johnson), for whom finding mates for others is nothing more than a math problem involving variables like age, height, and income. She tells her clients she’ll help them find the kind of guy who will be their “nursing home partner” and “grave buddy.”
Lucy sees forging longterm relationships as purely transactional. Which helps explain why, despite her talents at getting people together, she’s not dating anyone and hasn’t for quite a while.
Early on in “Materialists,” Lucy goes to the wedding of one of her clients to a wealthy guy. His brother, Harry (Pedro Pascal) flirts with Lucy and there’s a spark, particularly when she finds out he works for a hedge fund. Combined with his looks and charm, he’s a “unicorn” in her world — but instead of setting him up with one of her clients, Lucy begins dating him herself.
But Harry’s not the only guy at the wedding interested in Lucy. So is John (Chris Evans), a down-on-his-luck actor who’s working as a waiter for the catering company. He was once Lucy’s boyfriend, but she broke up with him because he was poor.
If you don’t know how this is all going to end, you haven’t seen enough romcoms.
Fortunately, “Materialists” was written and directed by Celine Song, whose “Past Lives” was on my list of the Best Movies Of 2023 and nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. She also knows about the matchmaking business, having once worked in it.
In her hands, what could have been a superficial by-the-numbers movie made by Nancy Meyers becomes something more, particularly in a subplot involving another of Lucy’s clients (which I won’t reveal). She also includes a few humorous montages of well-to-do men and women explaining in eye-rolling detail exactly what they want in a potential spouse, a living definition of materialism.
Song gets a wonderful performance out of Johnson, particularly the looks on Lucy’s face when she sees the $12 million apartment Harry owns. It’s a long way from the small place John still shares with two other guys, one of whom is a disgusting slob.
After making the “Fifty Shades Of Grey” movies, Johnson has given nicely nuanced performances in much smaller movies over the last couple of years — co-starring with Sean Penn in “Daddio” (which I named one of the Best Movies Of 2024) and opposite Cooper Raiff in the 2023 movie he wrote and directed, “Cha Cha Real Smooth.”
In “Materialists,” Johnson has a nice, smooth chemistry with both Pascal and Evans which makes the movie worth your time. I’m giving it a 7.5 out of 10.
Now playing in theaters.