Joseph Moser
When a film has intelligence and a beating heart, many flaws can be forgiven. That’s certainly the case with “Materialists,” the second movie by Celine Song, writer-director of 2023’s staggering, revelatory “Past Lives.” Although some elements of “Materialists” don’t hold up to scrutiny, it depicts profound emotions and has deep insights about love, money, and the stories we tell ourselves about both.
The main character, Lucy (Dakota Johnson), is growing disillusioned with her job as a New York City matchmaker. At the wedding of a client, she meets an alluring private equity financier, Harry (Pedro Pascal) and runs into her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor who works for a catering service to (barely) make ends meet. In the ensuing weeks, Lucy struggles to navigate her romance with Harry and her friendship with John as she faces a crisis at work.
At the script level, some of the plotting simply doesn’t jibe, including two late-film twists that propel the narrative forward but come across as forced. Song also integrates a flashback that seems false at first glance and then is rendered unnecessary by a later line of dialogue from Lucy: “I’m the type who fights in the middle of the street.”
Like an enduring life partner, though, the film’s virtues offset its shortcomings. Reteaming with Shabier Kirchner, her cinematographer for “Past Lives,” Song crafts some strikingly elegant long shots, including one of a wedding speech that she captures from a shadowy remove, rendering the moment ambiguous and poignant. Opting for a close-up would have spoiled it. This sets the stage for a later wedding scene that is visually brighter but equally enigmatic.
Furthermore, Song uses silence to powerful effect. Lucy and John’s initial tête-a-tête, which unfolds in an alley, conveys backstory through what is unsaid as much as by what the characters articulate. When John breaks off midsentence, the camera lingers on him as he forgoes delving further into the past with Lucy, retreating into silence. Here we catch a glimpse of his broken heart, just as we observe the regret and longing in her eyes. This is the moment when the film had me hooked because it is both sophisticated and uncynical enough to be truthful about relationships. It speaks the language of the disappointed and lovelorn, despite the fact that the leads are played by glamorous stars. Classic Hollywood movies achieved this feat regularly, but rare is the film that can pull it off today.
Why would a bittersweetly romantic movie like this be called “Materialists”? Astonishingly, it has the audacity to say the quiet part out loud: In our society — maybe in any society — the security and spoils that money begets make it nearly impossible for love to conquer all. Haunted by the strife she experienced as a child of financially struggling parents, Lucy feels compelled to seek a rich husband. By the same token, though, she loathes the fact that she can’t dissociate marriage from wealth.
In this respect, the movie channels “It’s a Wonderful Life.” As Lucy teeters at the edge of an ostensibly perfect marriage, she stares into a void, a hell. And the prevailing force of that hell is the love of money — everything it engenders and all it obliterates. If this sounds somber, rest assured that it is. Although the film has lighthearted moments, its thematic concerns are deadly serious. Whereas classic screwball comedies often pit fun-loving humanists against stuffy materialists and allow us to side with the good gals and gents, Song’s contemporary romantic dramedy suggests that the real battle lies within: Like Lucy, each of us has a greedy conformist and a romantic humanist vying for ascendancy in our turbulent soul. And I think that’s about right.
Song consistently makes surprising and compelling choices, including in her opening and closing scenes, and she isn’t averse to taking risks, as evidenced by her title, which surely made studio heads break out in hives. Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans, working on this modestly budgeted project instead of opting for superhero paydays, give performances of great depth and nuance. I walked away feeling moved, enlightened, and fortified by this timely, harsh, compassionate film.
“Materialists” plays at the Capitol Theater in Montpelier through June 26 and opens at the Savoy on June 27.
