Materialists Review: Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans In Celine Song’s Rom-Com About Love And Money

Materialists (NC16)

Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal

Directed by Celine Song

If you come in expecting Materialists to be a rom-com, you’re not wrong… ish. Actually, the “com” here is shorthand for commerce. If Celine Song’s Oscar-nominated Past Lives asked “What if?”, her follow-up asks, “How much?”

As crazy as it sounds, Materialists makes an unlikely companion piece to Michael Shanks’ Together. Both films scrutinise modern relationships — his through body horror, hers through the icy transactional eyes of a professional matchmaker, played by a radiant Dakota Johnson.

Johnson’s Lucy is a fixer of hearts, a romantic cynic who believes falling in love is easy whereas dating is bitchingly hard. “Dating takes a lot of effort,” she says. “A lot of trial and error. A ton of risk and pain.”

Then she meets-cute with Wall Street trader Harry (Pedro Pascal, channelling Pretty Woman-era Richard Gere’s charm — in industrial-strength) — “a unicorn” in the singles’ circuit: tall, handsome, gracious, and very rich — at the wedding of two of her successfully paired clients (what are the odds?), and suddenly she has to rewrite her rules of engagement.

Oh, it gets better: she runs into her ex, John (Chris Evans — reminding us he’s far too good to be trapped in the MCU), a broke caterer-waiter and struggling actor at the party (again, what are the odds?). Turns out John still isn’t over Lucy… and the feeling’s mutual. Sorta, kinda.

What’s most intriguing about Materialists isn’t so much the ‘who-will-Lucy-choose’ question but Song’s world-weary view on love as a commodity. (She should know: she worked briefly as a matchmaker.) Lucy sees herself less a cupid than a mortician or an insurance agent — obsessed with numbers, not feelings. In her universe, the art of the wooing is reduced to algorithms and asset sheets.

What is marriage, the film asks, if not a business deal — only with love as the bargaining chip (BTO much?). Lucy isn’t just helping her client find someone to walk down the aisle with, but also a future nursing-home mate and grave buddy. Call it what it is: it’s a long-term investment. And investments carry risks.

It’s a cold and oddly practical perspective, and a nagging reminder of the economics of our own relationships. Rom-coms are fairy tales for grown-ups; Materialists slaps a price tag on it. Can we afford it? (4/5 stars) out in cinemas

Photos: Sony Pictures Entertainment

The Thursday Murder Club (NC16)

Starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie

Directed by Chris Columbus

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone director — and proud Anglophile — Chris Columbus ventures across the pond for his delectable adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestseller. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie star as members of the titular retirement home clique who solve cold-case murders for fun. More The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel than Death on the Nile, the whodunit is secondary (though watching Mirren lead the investigation feels like Prime Suspect: The Golden Years). The real magic lies in seeing these British heavyweights (all somehow never part of a Harry Potter film, go figure!) — plus Richard E Grant as a shady figure — squabbling and bantering, reminiscing about the good old days, still vital and vibrant. For the sequel, please get Liam Neeson! (3.5/5 stars) on Netflix

Photo: Giles Keyte/Netflix