Materialists movie review: Dakota Johnson-Chris Evans-Pedro Pascal starrer rom-com is relevant, relatable & refreshing

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal

Director: Celine Song

After impressing with her directorial debut Past Lives, director Celine Song has managed to get a great star cast for her rom-com Materialists in the form of Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal.

While the promotional material has garnered excitement among the audience, let’s find out whether Materialists has struck the chord with cinegoers or not.

In today’s world, the majority of people have a practical mindset for every aspect including marriages, relationships and others. Lucy (Dakota Johnson), a sharp and smart individual works as a matchmaker for an agency named Adore.

While attending the marriage of her latest clients, whom she set up, Lucy comes across Harry (Pedro Pascal), a charming financier, who is the groom’s brother. While she gets awestruck by his personality including financial status, gets bumps into her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor, who is working as a waiter in the marriage.

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After having a conversation about their whereabouts, John drops Lucy at her apartment and at that period the flashback of their broken relationship. It showed how Lucy dumped John after 5 years of relationship because he was broke and struggling financially.

Harry, who has now taken Lucy on a date to a fancy restaurant pitches himself to her Mr Perfect. However, Lucy says he is too good for him and as per matchmaking skills, he can be termed a ‘unicorn,’ a dream match for every girl because of his elite status and good looks.

As they start dating, Lucy realizes that she doesn’t know why is she with Harry as in one of their earlier conversations, they confronted that Love is the most difficult and clueless thing and marriages are deals, which come after making efforts during dates. So, with whom will Lucy finally end up with?

While the story struck the right chord by exploring the dynamics of relationships in today’s world and how are perceived differently by millennials and GenZs, somehow I felt these kinds of plots and treatments have been shown in Bollywood films 90s and 2000s.

Director Celine Song, who also served as a writer for Materialists, seemed to have undercooked the character of Pedro with the emotional arc of Chris and Dakota could have been explored with more depth.

Talking about the performances, all three stars played their portrayals to the T and captured the essence of their character with ease and finesse. On the whole, Materialists is a decent watch, which has its heart at the right place.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Materialists is playing in cinemas