Materialists: A 'star director is born'

I try not to go into a movie with any prejudices or expectations, though I found it hard to avoid them with a movie called Materialists.

Dakota Johnson – of 50 Shades of Grey notoriety - has to decide between rich and suave Pedro Pascal and poor but sexy Chris Evans.

The only vaguely promising element was the writer-director Celine Song who pulled off a fluke miracle with a similar story in her last film – it was also her first film – Past lives.

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Well, guess what, it wasn’t a fluke. She’s done it again. And on the basis of Materialists, a star director is born.

Materialists is getting rave reviews, and I guarantee every one of them came from people who saw the film with no idea what to expect.

That was me, and I’m sorry to take it away from you. It’s a story about a smart, ambitious, New York matchmaker called Lucy.

Lucy’s very good at her job, a job that depends on her giving her would-be clients what they want.

Even if what they want is usually impossible, and the clients are, without exception, spoiled brats. Unsurprisingly, writer-director Song was briefly a matchmaker herself.

The secret of Lucy’s impressive success is she doesn’t judge. When you’re looking for love, or something like it, you’re at your most vulnerable, she says. So, they reveal awful sides of their character they’d never even show their therapists.

Lucy celebrates her ninth successful match-up by organising the couple’s luxurious wedding.

There she meets the multi-millionaire brother of the groom. His name is Harry - played by Pedro Pascal – he’s rich, suave, tall, witty – in short, far too good to be true.

And just as Lucy blurts out, half-jokingly, that she plans to marry someone exactly like that, a face from her past arrives.

It’s John – the usually appealing Chris Evans – who’s not remotely rich, suave or confident. He’s actually working there as a waiter.

There’s nothing obvious about Materialists, particularly if your experience of movie romances is limited to the formulaic romcom section of Netflix.

Song is considerably smarter than that. And no-one is quite what they appear.

John isn’t just an old fling. He and Lucy were together for years before breaking up over real, irreconcilable differences.

Has anything changed? On the contrary, they seem to have firmed up their hostile positions since then.

And Harry, despite his ridiculous wealth and confident charm, proves to be almost impossible to dislike.

Though we are allowed to wonder if there’s more - or less – to him than first appears?

Meanwhile Lucy is about to find that her confidence in herself and in her job is about to be rocked, more than once. Love can be in the eye of the beholder.

And love – as they used to say when these films were made by Frank Capra and Dorothy Parker – can make fools of the best of us.

A routine romantic triangle movie involves our heroine waiting an hour and a half for Mr Wrong and Mr Right to reveal themselves.

But what if neither is right or wrong? And what if the heroine’s judgement isn’t too reliable either? In the world of Song, the best we can do is the best we can do.

As I say, a star director is born.

With three characters and a simple plot, Song seems to have achieved more in Materialists than Ridley Scott managed with Napoleon and the entire French army.

Listen to Simon Morris review the latest films in At The Movies, available here or on Sundays at 1.30pm on RNZ National.