Written and directed by Celine Song (Past Lives) Materialists centres around the life of Lucy (Dakota Johnson – Fifty Shades of Grey). Lucy works for a dating agency where most of her clients are selfish narcissists looking for partners who are well and truly out of their league. Despite that, Lucy has produced one of the best ‘marriage’ records at the agency after getting several couples that she placed together to tie the knot.
While Lucy seems horrified at the wants and needs of most of her clients her own beliefs on what a relationship should entail also seem warped. She almost seems proud of the fact that she thinks that a relationship, especially a marriage, should be like a business deal. And when she describes what a perfect relationship should entail not once does she even mention the word love.
At the wedding of one of her clients Lucy meets rich business-man Harry (Pedro Pascal – The Fantastic Four: First Steps) and almost immediately begins one of these ‘business-deal relationships’ where she fawns over his apartment and belongings and dates entail talking about what each ‘brings to the table.’
Just as her relationship with Harry begins her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans – The Avengers) comes back into her life. John is the opposite of Harry – he is a down-on-his-luck actor who is forced to live in a crazy share-house and is constantly scraping by. The irony is that Lucy actually has fun whenever she catches up with him.
It is also Lucy that is the centre of why as an audience member you’ll be taken on a bit of an emotional roller-coaster when you are watching the film. To be perfectly honest, when we are first introduced to Lucy, her clients and their shared ideals I actually found myself feeling really repulsed. I was interested in the plot but I found her character so unlikable that I was honestly hating her.
Life-changing
At that time what was saving the film for me was the brilliantly written screenplay by Celine Song that was so well written I found myself hanging off every word that the characters spoke. This is one of those films were a dialogue driven scene can be just suspenseful as an intense thriller.
Then something beautiful began to happen as I stuck with the film. The true power of Song’s screenplay started to come to the fore. As the film went on, the events that were happening around her were beginning to mature Lucy as a character. As she matured her thoughts and beliefs began to change and soon I found that she was becoming a likable character.
In the early stages of Materialists there is no way I would have expected to leave this cinema happy with how things turned out – yet somehow Song’s amazing screenplay completely changed by thoughts and ideas on a character and had me leaving the cinema after the credits not only happy but in the belief that this is one of the best films that I will see in 2025. I don’t think I have experienced a screenplay with the power to do that for quite some time.
Elevating the power of that screenplay are the performances of the cast. Johnson is brilliant playing the different ‘layers’ of Lucy. She shows a true gift as she takes Lucy through this life-changing journey and brings Song’s words to screen.
Pascal also becomes one of those actors that can say just as much with a facial expression than he came with a page of words with this film. His character is largely broody and dead-pan throughout the film but Pascal has a way of showing Harry’s hidden emotions with a simple expression or gesture.
Then there is Evans who plays the character that most people will warm to straight-away. Again, though his character is put through an emotional wringer and Evans brings his character’s inner turmoil to the screen in such a way that he reminds Hollywood that he can do more than just action films.
There will be very few films that hit screens this year with a screenplay as brilliant as Materialists. Celine Song reminds us that romance films don’t have to be goofy, bland affairs that quickly lose their appeal. If you love well-written dramas this is one film you don’t want to miss this year.
Materialists opens in Phuket on Aug 28 August and is yet to be classified.
5/5 Stars
David Griffiths has been working as a film journalist for over 25 years. That time has seen him work in radio, television and in print. He currently hosts a film podcast called The Popcorn Conspiracy. He is also a Rotten Tomatoes accredited reviewer and is an alternate judge for the Golden Globes Awards. You can follow him at Facebook: SubcultureEntertainmentAus.