Material love: everything we think about the appointments (but we never say)

The criteria that we adopt to decide who to go out are a kind of half taboo. We indicate our preferences on the apps (age, level of education and so on) but in real life we ​​talk little about it. One of the most interesting aspects of the new film by Celine Song, Material loveit is precisely the way you bring these desires and complexes to the big screen, usually reserved for the private, with sober lucidity and subtle irony.

The film, released in the room on June 13, was presented in trailers as a sweet romantic comedy. The comedy is certainly, especially in the acute sociological portrait that Song trace of the fictions and prejudices of a certain New York elite. But in reality Material love It is more a conceptual drama on the pull and gives up between passion and pragmatism.

Dakota Johnsondry but intense, plays Lucy, a thirty year old from Manhattan who works for an exclusive dating agency. He recommends his customers (mainly straight, single, professionals and over 30 women) with the therapeutic and reassuring tone typical of a culture that relies on without reserve for the questionable wisdom of the lifestyle guru. But Lucy’s analyzes are not just common places designed to keep customers hooked. In the way it manages the lists of desires of these broken hearts there is also a corroborating honesty; Furthermore, Material love It is full of straightforward speeches on money and physical appearance. It may seem superficial, until you remember how much those aspects are fundamental for many (indeed, for most of the) people.

The thematic audacity of Material love It is accompanied fascinating to an ethereal and enchanting aesthetic. Just like in his refined debut film, Past Liveshere too Celine Song evokes a summer New York, seductive and imbued with melancholy. It is a place where real romanticism clashes with fantasy; Where the door to a dream life always seems around the corner, hidden in the soft light of elegant restaurants and sumptuous wedding locations. This is Manhattan that Lucy’s customers imagine for themselves: elegant and harmonious, sophisticated but quiet.

The hardest, sordid and unjust aspects of sentimental life stand out in clear contrast to all that refined elegance. The women who revolve around Lucy, among other things, are obsessed with the height of men, with a rigidity shared by the film itself. All this begins to seem a little cruel, even if, I have been told, it constitutes a fairly faithful representation of heterosexual dating once the conveniences are overcome. Song is not limited to making irony on this fixation; On the contrary, I believe that the disarming frankness of the film points to a sort of catharsis. Feeling someone to say aloud what usually is silent, recognizing that unpleasant and unfortunate truth that everyone thinks but nobody admits, in fact, it can be terribly liberating.

I would gladly look at Celine Song having fun exploring, with its sharp and slightly theatrical dialogues, the cruel bizarre of dating in the New York bourgeoisie for the whole film. But a work destined for the general public requires something more, and therefore Material love must have a plot. The story sees Lucy sentimentally involved with Harry, a fascinating and rich man of finance played with intriguing sweetness from Pedro Pascal. It is not the arrogant snob that we would expect, and Lucy is unarmed not only in the face of its charm, but also in front of the opportunity it represents: an opportunity for gold suddenly at hand. Their fairytale story gets complicated soon with the reappearance of Lucy’s ex -boyfriend, John (Chris Evansin his usual seducer role), an almost unemployed actor whose chronic economic difficulties had removed Lucy years earlier.

By narrowing the field, Celine Song compacts the most interesting parts of the film in a rather conventional love triangle. The dreamlike and curious spell breaks, e Material love It weighs down, becomes too literal, up to an all too comfortable conclusion. Song seems to wish good luck to anyone looking for a soul mate, simply inviting us to follow the heart. The importance of money, aspect and everything else is recognized in a sober tone, even bitter, but then also a little set aside. In the end, there is a lack of sharp pragmatism that had marked the beginning of the film.

However, a secondary development remains interesting, which sees a splendid interpretation of Zoe Winters (view in Succession) and pushes Material love more complex questions about Lucy’s work. She, a failed actress, has always played a role, projecting a apparent safety on the dynamics of human interaction, based on stereotypes and generic assumptions. Lucy, however often animated by good intentions, still sells an illusion. The box method to be ticked to combine potential partners neglects many things; In reality, Lucy cannot significantly guarantee any of the candidates it proposes.

If these darker implications had been explored thoroughly, Material love He could have become a fascinating and cruel vision of the internotermitivity, similar to the unpleasant (and perhaps unhealthy) thrill of the first Neil Labute. At the last moment, however, the film moves away from this hardness, returning to the light sentimentalism that seems to prefer.

However, the film reserves a lot to taste. The sumptuous visual aesthetic is enriched by a delicate and refined sound landscape, signed by the composer Daniel Pemberton And from the sound design team, which with care and skill returns the rustle of the skin on the fabric, the sound of the city that vanishes leaving room for the muffled silence of a quiet moment and full of meaning. Material love is seductive at the right point: even if it reveals some potential deal-breakOverall, a pleasant appointment proves. I wanted to fall in love, as happened with Past Lives. But even an intense and carefree flirtation can be fine.