By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ***

Dakota Johnson plays failed actress turned successful matchmaker Lucy who meets the perfect man, a financier played by Pedro Pascal, at the wedding of a client where her ex is working as a waiter.

• Read on for reasons including how Materialists undoes a lot of the good work that marked out Song after Past Lives

Materialists is written and directed by Celine Song whose last film Past Lives won our 2023 Best Film monsta and was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

Lucy believes she will either stay single or marry someone wealthy as we later learn that her parents had money worries and her relationship with Evans’ waiter ended in similar circumstances.

Song previously worked as a matchmaker and Materialists is at its strongest when pointing out the horrific demands that clients place on those they hire to find love for them and how tick-boxy the process can be.

Lucy’s on a roll professionally until a client suffers a bad match and the matchmaker can’t help but involve herself in attempting to make things right against the advice of her boss.

Past Lives was a film with 3 leads who were romantically interconnected and benefitted from its South Korean backdrop and predominantly little known cast while the Hollywood stars here have too much baggage to be convincingly new to us, innocent and sweet.

Its heart’s in the right place and Pascal, 1 of the world’s most likeable leads, is interesting playing the less sympathetic of the 2 male stars but we didn’t find Evans credible and Johnson is a little too cold here for our appreciation.

The commodification of love is a very Western subject for a film and felt for us a far less interesting exploration than Past Lives’ focus on what is known in Korea as ‘in-yun’, the bringing together of people who were lovers in their titular past lives.

Apparently vibing with new people in the wild rather than courtesy of a box-ticking matchmaker is the way forward! Who knew? Although arranged marriages do continue and perhaps this film will have greater resonance in those cultures.

Materialists undoes a lot of the good work that marked out Song after Past Lives and appears to be a case of too much exposition as the latter characterised itself by its savouring of every sparse word while the former is verbose in comparison.

Does the message that valuing money ahead of finding the soulmate who’s going to be with you in the nursing home at the end of your life is a recipe for disaster really need reinforcing and overcooking as it is here?

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Materialists
• Have you seen a Pedro Pascal film before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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