‘Materialists' Review: Dakota Johnson's Matchmaker in the Middle
Celine Song's debut film, 'Past Lives,' was a sincere, heartfelt and moving drama about a happily married woman who nevertheless wondered how things might have turned out if she hadn't been separated from a boy with whom she had a childhood bond. Ms. Song's sympathy for her three characters made an elementary story resonate, and she received an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay and the movie for best picture.
For her follow-up, 'Materialists,' an enjoyably low-key dramedy, Ms. Song has attracted three of today's most in-demand actors: Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans. Ms. Johnson stars as Lucy, a professional matchmaker in New York whose wised-up cynicism recalls the kinds of roles Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell used to play. Lucy has trained herself to see single people in terms of their component values: looks, wealth, fitness, age, etc. The early scenes create an amusing if familiar tableau of men and women unable to connect because of impossible standards on both sides.
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