MATERIALISTS

 It is nice to forget about our day-to-day problems and dive into a good movie or a novel. I managed to watch this movie with my toddler, trying to bribe her with chocolates and snacks. I had watched the trailer with Pedro Pascal and Dakota Johnson, and I knew I wanted to watch the full movie. The story really touched me, because I had experience with a matchmaking company in my late thirties. It was not easy admitting I failed to meet my soulmate spontaneously, and now the time is running out, and I need the help of matchmakers. It was weird going for photoshoots, and having to fill out forms, and elaborate on what kind of match I wanted. I did not mind about a much older match, or the hairline, or their income. I really could not tolerate a guy who was shorter than me! I was brutally rejected because of my religion, then we decided that since I am not a practicing and strict Muslim girl,  we could put spirituality on the forms. After a couple of bad dates, the matchmakers suggested we consider the pool of divorced men. That is also a big no-no for me! especially divorced men with children…Anyway, I got bored with the matchmakers and went back to online dating and found my husband. 

Back to the movie tackling the challenges of the match-making business, where they have to find that handsome, rich, and tall guy in the dating pool. It was funny when Pedro Pascal bumped into Dakota Johnson; she called him a unicorn in the dating world.  Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a successful but increasingly cynical high-end matchmaker. Her razor-sharp instincts have led to nine marriages, yet her personal life is stalled. The catalyst for her crisis is a messy love triangle: on one side is John (Chris Evans), her broke, artistically ambitious ex-boyfriend, representing messy, genuine history and emotional depth. On the other is Harry (Pedro Pascal), the 'unicorn'—a suave, impossibly wealthy hedge fund manager who seems to check every box on the market's list of desirable traits.

Pedro Pascal’s performance as Harry is a masterstroke of charming menace. He embodies the perfect catch: handsome, generous, and sophisticated, he offers Lucy the lifestyle of her dreams—a penthouse, silk sheets, and freedom from financial anxiety. Pascal plays Harry with an effortless, seductive polish that makes it genuinely challenging for the audience to root against him, even when the film begins to reveal the transactional nature of their connection. His character is the physical manifestation of material value, forcing Lucy (and the viewer) to confront whether calculated security can ever truly replace spontaneous love.

Song cleverly uses this triangle to expose the transactional nature of dating, turning human connection into a set of quantifiable assets. The film's strength lies in its refusal to paint a clear villain or hero; Harry is genuinely kind, and John is genuinely struggling. The real conflict is internal—Lucy’s struggle to reconcile the idealistic passion of her past with the financial pragmatism of her present career.

Ultimately, Materialists is a brilliant and honest deconstruction of the genre. It's less concerned with providing a swooning, fairy-tale ending and more interested in the painful, adult compromises that underpin long-term relationships. The perfect relationship with Harry did not work out because, ultimately, love was not on the table, and Lucy drifted towards her struggling ex-boyfriend, where she found more comfort and freedom with him, and she knew they would be fine, because now she earns enough to look after things.