The Materialists (2025): The Qualms of Modern Dating

What makes a bad movie? 

For me, a bad movie is one that doesn’t make you feel anything. After all, like our catchphrase, art is meant to comfort the disturbed or disturb the comfortable. 

By those standards, the Materialists (2025) cannot be a bad movie. Granted, there were plot points and directions that were questionable to say the least. And arguably, the delivery of what we believe to be Celine Song’s message, is just not effective. 

Dakota Johnson as "Lucy" in the Materialists (2025)

(Credit: People)

Still, at the core of it, the Materialists is a pretty interesting movie. It’s not romantic nor funny enough to be a rom-com. It’s not “deep” enough to be a thought piece. It sort of just exists as a movie that sparks discussions about a topical subject — dating. 

In the Materialists, Dakota Johnson plays Lucy, a matchmaker who matches “high value” men and women together in New York City. She navigates her on love life where she is presented with two suitors. Player one is John, played by Chris Evans. He’s an aspiring actor with a burning passion albeit limited financial means. We’re talking nightmare flatshares, catering jobs and a very very old car. Player two is Harry, played by Pedro Pascal. He works in Private Equity, comes from generational wealth and would buy Lucy anything. In Lucy’s case, “anything” includes dinners at the most expensive restaurants in NYC and a dream trip to Iceland. 

This set up alone gives us a hint of what Celine is trying to get at. 

The Materialists explores how we have normalised objectifying and quantifying each other. Our looks, height (sorry men), familial backgrounds, material and intangible assets — these are tabulated by the matchmakers and you’re given a rating of where you would land in the social rankings. You’re then matched with someone at a similar rank. Consequentially, finding your forever becomes a mathematical question. Although we’re not trying to find the “right” answer. We’re just trying to balance the scales. 

With this definition of modern dating, Lucy would be right to call marriage a business deal. 

The ending (SPOILERS AHEAD) 

Sometimes I wonder as a director, how does it feel if your audience fails to understand your message or just outright disagrees with it? I’d love to pick Celine’s brain here. The Materialists had a mixed reception. Not everyone agrees with the ending. In fact, some are vehemently against it. 

Pedro Pascal as "Harry" in the Materialists (2025)

(Credit: Screen Rant)

As for myself, I recall feeling infuriated towards the end of the movie. Contrary to popular opinion, my problem with the ending was not that Lucy doesn’t choose the “perfect” Harry. Sure, Lucy explained that she was not in love with Harry, he not with her, and no money can fix that. But throughout Harry and Lucy’s dates, I never felt that she tried to build a genuine relationship with him. When she was going through a tough time, she doesn’t call Harry to confide in him, nor does she tell him what’s going on.

I didn't think it was right for Lucy to decide in that short period of time that she could not fall in love with Harry. Afterall, love doesn’t come at first sight. 

Love comes from fighting through the obstacles together and sticking with each other through the ugliest of times. Love doesn’t spawn from fancy dinner dates or watching the Northern Lights together. To quote the iconic line from Everything Everywhere All at Once, love is probably the feeling that makes you say: “in another life I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.”  

The only person Lucy had opened up to and had gone through the ups and downs with was John. They've seen each other's worst moments and they decided to call it quits. It seems that they had broken up they were poor, or more so John was poor and stingy. Struggling together all the time made it too difficult for them to stay in love and be happy.

On the other hand, Lucy never gave truly gave Harry the chance to build a genuine relationship with her. And we should’ve known why since John’s first appearance. The scene with the coke and beer tells us everything we needed to know about Lucy's feelings. She still loved John.

In most cases, this would be another classic romcom ending, but something didn’t sit right with me. 

I think it’s because through the flashbacks of Lucy and John’s relationship, we seldom saw any happy moments. Celine did not show us what was so special about their relationship and why John was “the one” for Lucy. All we saw was how and why their relationship ended. Most importantly, we saw what Lucy and John’s priorities were in their relationships. And it was clear that those priorities weren't aligned. 

When they reconnected in their 30s, the elements that caused their relationship to collapse were still there. 

Dakota Johnson as "Lucy" (left), Chris Evans as "John" (right)

(Credit: NPR)

In many ways, the ending doesn't make sense for Lucy’s character development. It seems that Celine might have been trying to use Lucy’s crisis at work as a catalyst for her development. But that’s a very weak choice on how to progress the plot. Lucy could have had the epiphany about her matchmaking work without compromising the standards that she had set for herself when she decided to break up with John. 

At the end of the day, she could choose neither John nor Harry. She could look for someone else. Or she could be alone. 

Choosing John feels like she’s making a compromise to her priorities. As Lucy herself says to John when they first reconnected, “You haven’t changed.” 

Overall, this was an enjoyable movie. It was not what I expected from Celine Song's second movie. Definitely not what I expected after Past Lives. But it was still an interesting movie that sparked a lot of conversations.

I hope the Materialists sparked as many discussions for you as it did for me. 

6/10.