By Subhash K Jha
Let me be honest about this duplicitous film. I like the work of Dakota Johnson immensely. She is likeable in her transparency. Even when playing a woman who lies for a living . In the partially likeable Materialists mostly waylaid, Dakota Johnson is cast as, ummm, Lucy Mason (even the name sounds like an alias).
Lucy is a high-profile matchmaker , a millennial Jane Austen heroine with a chip on her shoulder and a huge cloud of guilt on her head.
What if? What if Lucy has been thrusting the wrong men on her female clients, and vice versa? As it is, nobody seems happy. Not the women clients, not the men. Not Lucy. This is a very unhappy film about uppercrust people filling their thirst for companionship with endless champagne and partying(not necessarily in that order).
Sadly, the unhappiness is eclipsed by an all-pervasive silliness in the conversations. Everyone speaks as though reading from teleprompter . The pauses between their sentences are a tad too long. The laughter after every punchline sounds rehearsed and insincere.
This is a film meant for the Oscars which loses its way in trying to do all the right things. So yes, what is lacking is spontaneity.Ever member of the cast seems to have landed on the set after too many rehearsals, or maybe too little of it but enough to let us know the actors are serious about their job.
Dakota Johnson’s Lucy Mason is especially hard hit by the paucity of extemporaneous content. She struggles to lift Lucy above her destiny. But the triteness never arrives at any brightness.This is partly due to Lucky’s vapid love life. Right at the start she meets what is known in the dating market as a unicorn: Harry (Pedro Pascal) is the perfect man. Rich, confident, attractive, witty, considerate….
So what’s the hitch? Turns out Harry has a secret. He had once got his legs surgically extended to look taller.
Seriously? This is a film about the rich and their ridiculous problems. This is Jane Austen without a sense of humour, or pathos. Especially disembodied is the character played by Chris Evans. His John is a born loser, Sensing this, Lucy had dumped John long ago. But he is back in Lucy’s life and she takes him back like an abandoned puppy dog.
Dammit, the men in Materialists have no pride or shame. They hang around Lucy although he keeps reminding them she is not a nice person , in the way people do when they are convinced that they ARE nice, but would rather keep saying the opposite just to hear they are indeed nice.
Now, that is as complicated as this shallow film gets. Materialists is pretty much shorn of highpoints. It floats along in a monotonous straight line, and has only one remotely interesting character. A dating client named Sophie(Zoe Winters) who only wants to be loved by someone and wonders if that is too to ask for.We also wonder.With a cast so attractive, we expect a decent rom.com ;is that too much to ask for? Hard to believe this missfire comes from Celine Song the director of Past Lives, the film that inspired the Tabu-Ajay Devgan misfire Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha.
