O Match Perfeito

So often we're asked to look down upon characters who crave wealth. Materialists is merely being realistic: It's something we all think about.

Lucy and the film, fail to fully invest in its richest potential line of inquiry - the ways in which capitalism distorts modern romance - and pivots to a more conventional romantic narrative of the kind it had promised to upend, if not outright critique.

For all Song's efforts to interrogate the frank materialism of contemporary dating, the film's ideas feel somehow anachronistic, as if they've been caught in a buffering delay.

Materialists is more bittersweet than sweet-which is what makes it so wonderful, in a wistful, elusive way.

The film's glossy veneer of confidence, much like that of its lead, belies an uncertainty. Apart from some punchy dialogue probing the economy of marriage, its tale is shallow, with almost nonexistent stakes.

Song lays bare the tricky parts of love, holding the messiness accountable without overplaying the drama. Instead of sweet escapism, it pulls us into the gray areas of desire, power, and performance.

Song resists the urge to follow any formula herself, forging questions about love and romance that can't all be answered by the time the credits roll and the lights go up.

It's tempting to say that Song went a more traditional route, but her second film is in fact a bold reshaping of the romcom.

Despite good acting across the board, I never bought it.

The issues it wants to address are deep; the way they are addressed is thin. More than once characters talk about feeling valued or worthless. What makes people feel valued by themselves or others, is tantalizingly raised, but frustratingly sketched.

Decidedly a film from the writer/director of "Past Lives," another thoughtful film about a love triangle and the way that our pasts haunt our futures.

[Song's] sophomore effort embraces a lighthearted rom-com template and then plays its material inaptly seriously-making it the cinematic equivalent of a sugary soda gone terribly flat.

Materialists may not quite gel, and its pieces do not all fit together comfortably, but I still find that I can't stop thinking about it and treasuring so many of the story's idiosyncratic wonders.

"Materialists" does land itself in a bit of a pickle when it comes to traditional storytelling resolution, but everywhere else it is an elevation on the form, with sparkling performances by each of its three stars.

This triangle of invention in text, image, and performance lifts "Materialists" to a high level of aesthetic delight -- for about half the movie. Then, the film falls with a thud, never to rise again.

Jane Austen it's not, but it gets at the consequences of modern romance among the moneyed classes, where self-worth is bound up in one's market value.

Though "Materialists" nods at a few rom-com conventions, it's ultimately a gentle exploration of what we think we want from love, and how those things can change when the right person arrives.

If you're seeing it with hopes of glittery escapism, be prepared that the result is a little sadder, a little more substantial. And that's much of what's so wonderful about it.

You are being misled by the marketing of "Materialists." The new film by writer-director Celine Song is being pitched to you as a light romantic comedy and date movie, which it most decidedly is not.

Though "Materialists" only partially delivers on its promise, is only occasionally funny, and has little to say that's new, Ms. Song and her cast put enough feeling into it to make it glow.