Materialists (2025)

Director, Writer: Celine Song

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice)

This quote is the starting premise of the romantic comedy. The romance is the pursuit of marriage. The comedy comes from the understanding of a context. For Jane Austen, this was a context in which men’s and women’s goals did not align, due to the purposeful attempts of law and society to keep women dependent on male income.

This context has changed. Women can make a living. We can make choices about sex, pregnancy and motherhood. We do not have to depend on men entirely. Although… it is rare and becoming rarer that any single person can live a financially secure life (unless born into great wealth). It makes sense to combine finances to be able to buy a house, have children, be educated. And for the most part, we still believe in love and despise loneliness. Marriage or partnerships are still relevant both financially and romantically.

You see I know romantic comedies. I’ve read Austen. I wrote an undergraduate dissertation on Doris Day and When Harry Met Sally appears in my list of the Top 10 Movies of the last century. Even when not fashionable, romcoms will have an audience and they are quite often the way that female stardom is formed in Hollywood. I know they change and adapt to the times and the politics. But they still need lovable characters, meet-cutes, complications and a good old-fashioned partnering in the end.

With this in mind I went to Celine Song’s film Materialists. I knew it was about dating and romance in the modern era. This is a subject that fascinates me. I haven’t been on a date in over 30 years (no date night with a long-term partner doesn’t count – that is about cementing a relationship, not the buzzy joy of first encounters). I have both an envy and a joy that I am not part of the dating scene. It sounds so fun. New people you can meet via your phone. And it sounds so frightening. New people you can meet via your phone. I have watched my single friends navigate this terrain and it seems full of the worst of people and the greatest of hopes.

Celine Song has written and directed beautifully about how contemporary life can shape modern love. But that was in Past Lives. Past Lives is a slow, subtle movie that talks about the impact of migration. It showed me something on screen that I hadn’t seen before. I was aware of the migrant story, that being in the middle, not quite being one thing, or fully accepted as another. The need to keep a culture alive that might not evolve in the same way as a homeland. It documents the loss of contact with roots, and the consequent romanticising of a faraway place. Yet, it is also about finding someone, something, some place that can still be called home. But what Past Lives also showed was the life of the person left behind. The longing, lingering sense of desertion and the romantic notions of what if…

Materialists articulates so many of the problems of modern dating and romance, but fails to deliver a similar level of subtlety. The clunky contrivance of a romantic comedy is too on show (possibly like the algorithms of a dating app).

The premise is that Lucy Mason (played by Dakota Johnson) is a matchmaker at an exclusive dating agency for the Manhattan singles who want more assurance than a dating app. At the wedding of one of her successful clients, she is placed on the singles table, where her meet cute with the millionaire brother of the groom is interrupted by the presence of her ex-boyfriend who is working as a waiter. What follows is a love triangle where Lucy has to chose between the rich, successful, generous, handsome Harry Castillo (played by Pedro Pascal) and the poor, kind, still working as a waiter, handsome John (played by Chris Evans).

What a terrible dilemma!

There are some things the writing does really well. I laughed at a bride’s reason for marrying. I loved the talking heads of singles talking to Lucy about their requirements, their non-negotiables. Echoes of the couples talking to camera in When Harry Met Sally, but far less cute. It got across the context and the supposed ‘math’ of the dating game, the prejudices and entitlements. I appreciated that it didn’t hold back from depicting the dark side of dating strangers and showed the real fear, devastation and confusion when things go wrong. There was also a flashback to an argument in the street between Lucy and John, that made the point that love is not separate from economics, that it is easier to be romantic when finances are not strained.

But it did labour the point and this was a fault of the writing that led to a slight awkwardness, a contrivance that undercut charming performances. The script choses ‘smart’ over ‘real’ on a number of occasions, and there was little time for the wistful reflection that underpinned Song’s previous movie.

I didn't like the beginning and end being bookmarked by a caveman and cavewoman romance. It suggested that love is timeless, an over-egging of the romantic pudding.

All that being said, I’m still glad I saw it. It’s a solid three star of a movie, with intermittent glimpses of something more solid. Overall, it made me pleased that my dating experiences were in a simpler time.

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