In the Materialists trailer, Dakota Johnson encourages us to “do the math.” Luckily, romantic comedy math is simple. One beautiful single woman plus one beautiful (rich) man plus one beautiful (poor) man equals another love triangle from Past Lives writer-director Celine Song. Based on the trailer, it doesn’t look like Song is trying to reinvent the wheel here. Rather, she’s taking the ol’ wheel for a spin and bringing Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal along for the ride.
Johnson plays Lucy, a successful matchmaker, a job that feels charmingly old-fashioned in the age of dating apps. In the style of rom-com greats before her (Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner, anyone?), Lucy has nine weddings under her belt and yet is chronically single in her own personal life. What happens next is the stuff of fantasy, which even the movie itself acknowledges: Lucy simultaneously meets a new, handsome, wealthy guy (Pascal) and at the same time encounters her working-class old flame (Evans). However will she choose?
Overall, The Materialists trailer is pretty basic, though not necessarily in a bad way. It almost feels like watching a trailer for a movie made in the ’90s—the kind of straightforward love story that rarely hits the big screen anymore. It’ll be a test for A24 to see if attractive movie stars enacting simple formulas can still sell. But Song certainly earned her romantic bona fides with Past Lives (and she and her husband Justin Kuritzkes, writer of Challengers, are cornering the market for love triangles). If anyone can make the old formula work, surely it’s her. This writer admits to being soothed, if not excited, by the familiar rhythms of the trailer. Materialists premieres in theaters on June 13.
