Celine Song’s second feature film “Materialists” is a calm romance film about one matchmaker who both calculates and cares a lot. While her practical mind seems interested in someone supposedly quite ideal for any woman out there, her heart cannot help but get drawn to a person she still loves despite some issues between them, and the movie illustrates her confusion and conflict with a lot of care and sensitivity.

The opening part of the movie quickly establishes how its heroine works as a fairly good matchmaker in New York City. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) has worked in a local matchmaking service agency for a while, and the movie observes her caring professionalism at one point early in the story. When one of her recent female clients comes to have a sudden serious doubt right before marrying some suitable guy introduced by Lucy, Lucy has a little private conversation with this lady, and she really listens to her client with enough empathy and understanding while respecting whatever her client is going to do right now.

Anyway, her client eventually marries that dude, and that is how Lucy encounters Harry (Pedro Pascal), a handsome bachelor who happens to be the brother of the groom. As they talk more and more with each other during a little party after the wedding, something seems to click between them, and Lucy comes to see more of what an ideal guy Harry is in many aspects. Besides being quite good-looking to say the least, he is also a wealthy financial businessman with a very nice family background. As Lucy points out later, he is virtually what is called a “Unicorn” in her business field, and that certainly makes her all the more interested in him.

However, there comes another unexpected moment for her while she is talking with Harry. One of the employees of the catering service for the wedding turns out to be her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans), and both Lucy and John are pleased to meet each other, even though they had a painful breakup some time ago. John is one of those struggling NYC actors who are often quite poor, and that was actually what caused their painful breakup as shown from a brief flashback scene.

Now you will have a pretty good idea about where the story is heading, but Song’s screenplay takes its time for fleshing out its main characters more as deftly maintaining its leisurely narrative pacing. As Lucy comes to spend more time with Harry, Harry turns out to be a lot more decent and thoughtful than expected, and Lucy naturally comes to consider going further with him. Although she does not mind being a single woman at all, she cannot help but yearn for someone to love and lean on, and Harry looks quite ready for being that person as they become more aware of how they seem ideal for each other according to their respective standards.

Nevertheless, Lucy’s heart feels conflicted as she also lets herself get involved with John again. They act as if they were just old friends now, but we gradually notice that the chemistry between them still exists, and we are not so surprised when Lucy subsequently calls John first after having a very unfortunate day at her workplace due to some really bad male client. He patiently listens to her on the phone, and she surely appreciates his generous thoughtfulness.

However, as your average materialist, Lucy is also often reminded of how economically unstable John has been compared to Harry, and the movie makes a sharp point on that from time to time. While it looks like his acting career is finally about to have a little breakthrough, John is still stuck in his old and shabby apartment along with a couple of roommates who are no better than him, and this surely makes a glaring contrast with Harry’s big and expensive apartment.

Needless to say, there eventually comes a moment when Lucy must make a big decision during the last act, but the movie sticks to its calmly restrained attitude as usual. Although it stumbles a bit due to a rather contrived dramatic moment, the story stays true to its three main characters nonetheless, and we come to understand and care more about them than before.

The three principal performers of the film are well-cast in their respective roles, and they all give believable performances filled with enough nuances and details to engage us. Dakota Johnson, who has shown more of her presence and talent since “Fifty Shades of Grey” (2015), exudes somber grace and charm from the beginning to the end, and this surely shows that she is quite ready to move on from that disastrous Marvel Cinematic Universe film which unfortunately garnered her a Razzie award early in this year. While Chris Evans, who seems to be aging well enough to become a more interesting actor, is likable in his earnest acting, Pedro Pascal, a naturally charismatic actor who has become very prominent during last several years, has several good scenes where his character comes to show more of himself to Lucy, and we can easily see why Lucy becomes so conflicted between these two guys.

In conclusion, “Materialists” is relatively lightweight compared to Song’s sublime first feature film “Past Lives” (2023), but it confirms to us more of Song’s considerable storytelling talent. The result is rather typical on the whole, but I found myself amused and touched enough during my viewing, and I will certainly look forward to observing how Song will advance more from her first two feature films.