As a filmmaker, Celine Song is nothing if not self-aware. Her first film, the lauded Past Lives, referenced her own story as a Korean immigrant to North America in order to plumb the depths of romantic longing as portrayed stereotypically in movies, specifically American movies, even if her cinematic attitude came across as more European. The film it best resembled was Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise in the way it conveyed that unmistakable but indescribable quality called romantic attraction, a phenomenon that can feel immutable whether it occurs between people who have just met or people who have known each other for years but are just now getting seriously acquainted. For her second feature, Materialists, Song takes this concept to the next natural level, into the realm of the classic American rom-com, and while she manages to nail the genre without succumbing to the cliches that have made it less than compelling in the internet age, I wish it were funnier.

It’s a classic three-hander. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a modern-day professional matchmaker and a seemingly successful one in that she can afford not only an office in Manhattan but a paid staff. Lucy is good at her job because she weighs compatibility in terms of quantifiable measures like salary, political sensibility, and whether or not the candidates want to raise families in the long run, but also those unquantifiable qualities that are mostly gauged by instinct. The opening scene is a brilliantly thought-out explication of her methodology as she attends the wedding of her ninth successful union. However, at the reception she runs into one of her old beaus, John (Chris Evans), who is working for the caterer. John is a still struggling actor with whom Lucy was quite serious for a while until she realized that waiting for John to actually make it as an actor was something of a chump’s game, even if she really dug him and maybe even was in love with him. He’s funny, intelligent, and considerate, but his material prospects were never assured, and one thing Lucy has learned by bringing suitable couples together is that material factors can’t be discounted (“Isn’t marriage essentially a business deal?”) even when true love is involved. At the reception, she also meets Harry (Pedro Pascal), a rich investor who is intrigued by Lucy’s profession and her single status, and they start dating. As Lucy’s assistant puts it, Harry is a “unicorn,” meaning that he uniquely checks all the desirable boxes for what would be the perfect mate for Lucy—or any woman, for that matter. Harry is not only rich, he’s just as funny, intelligent, and considerate as John is. What’s there not to love? 

And that is the question the movie goes to great pains to ask over and over again. Song inserts every possible variable into Lucy’s relationships with John and Harry, thus challenging her fundamental concept of the dating scene as a “marketplace.” And while this theme at first feels overly schematic the script never resorts to predictable conventions, mainly because each of the principals is so finely drawn and imaginatively portrayed. The problem is that such a theme has an inevitable end point that Song can’t quite navigate, and the situations feel more strained and less realistic as the movie progresses. This consideration might have been less important if Song had a sharper sense of humor, but only Evans sees his job as lightening the mood. I have a feeling Song is not yet through with the rom-com genre, and I would suggest teaming up with a real comedy writer on the next one. We all can’t be Nora Ephron. 

Now playing in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Human Trust Cinema Shibuya (03-5468-5551).

Materialists home page in Japanese

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