“Marriage is a business deal, and it always has been,” Lucy, a professional matchmaker, tells her clients in the film Materialists. Inspired by director Celine Song’s six-month stint as a Manhattan-based matchmaker, the film acknowledges the transactional nature of romantic relationships but also poses the perennial question of whether true love is still achievable in a world where we increasingly pre-select potential partners based on their financial assets and physical attractiveness. 
When we first meet Lucy (Dakota Johnson), she is attending the marriage of one of her clients. We soon learn that Lucy is the proverbial shoemaker whose children have no shoes. While she has arranged nine matches which have resulted in marriage, her own romantic life is non-existent, and she is convinced that she will “die alone.”
Who is the better partner, the person who checks all the boxes or the one who tugs at your heartstrings?
Seated at the singles table, she meets Harry, the groom’s brother (Pedro Pascal), an attractive, well-to-do hedge fund manager. Although Lucy sees Harry as a potential client, he sees her as a potential date. Interestingly enough, while Lucy and Harry are getting to know each other, she runs into her former boyfriend John (Chris Evans), an actor who is currently working the wedding as a waiter. Lucy broke up with John because of his financial instability. The audience quickly realizes that we have entered into not only Lucy’s personal romantic triangle but also the film’s essential question. Who is the better partner, the person who checks all the boxes or the one who tugs at your heartstrings?
Materialists is an interesting film in that it blends the genres of social commentary, romantic comedy, and cautionary tale. Song provides an intimate look at the dynamics of Manhattan’s high-end matchmaking industry, where men and women are willing to pay matchmakers like Lucy and her boss, Violet (Marin Ireland), large commissions to find a match who is the per...