Materialists (#695)


I thought matchmakers were from a bygone era and the last one worthy of such a subject was a musical movie, Hello Dolly, set the the 1890s, starring Barbra Streisand as matchmaker Dolly Levi and one of her clients, played by Walter Matthau. Obviously, I was wrong, for on Father's Day weekend in Virginia, my daughter and I enjoyed MATERIALISTS, which was a modern day movie about a modern day matchmaker. Populated by a bunch of attractive young men and women, the film explores the life and occupation of a woman who is a very effective wizard at putting people together with a grading technique of checking "boxes" (desirable attributes). At the wedding of one of her clients, she meets a man who, from her perspective, is the perfect client (checking all the boxes)—good looking, wealthy, all the right social graces—and begins dating him. Into this relationship comes her ex-boyfriend, who is probably the worst possible client.  He works menial jobs as he pursues a career as an actor. It is billed as a romantic comedy, but it isn't that funny. It is a drama about relationships, good and bad, coupled with a dark look at her profession, which I consider insidious. I found just about everything about the film satisfying, but as I have implied on more than one occasion, I'm an incurable romantic and this somehow reminds me of films from way back when. Critics gave this hour and 56 minute film an 86% thumbs up; audiences 69%.  

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