“What is Love Worth” in the cinema: This is the RomCom with Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal and Chris Evans

When a man stares at her on the street with covetous eyes, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) walks straight up to him. "Are you single?" she asks, and presses her business card into the astonished passerby's hand.

Lucy works as a matchmaker in New York, and she's good at her job. Her clientele is wealthy and sophisticated. What they're looking for can't be found on Tinder. They belong to the urban elite—their future partner wants to be chosen carefully, not by random swiping.

For Lucy, every wedding is like a business deal that must be carefully negotiated to ensure both parties are satisfied. This applies primarily—but not exclusively—to the financial aspects. When Lucy researches her clients' expectations, she finds that physical attributes are the most important consideration for men, while annual income is the most important consideration for women. A man earning less than $100,000 a year is considered difficult to marry.

But men shorter than 1.80 meters are also unacceptable for most clients, as is a lack of or patchy hair. In her new film "Materialists," director Celine Song repeatedly sequences interviews in which women and men evaluate their often excessive expectations. Like a construction kit, they mentally assemble their ideal spouses.

One client even compiled a multi-page list of expectations. After all, she's "a good catch." And a man in his mid-forties has only dated young women and now wants to focus on slightly more mature women. They shouldn't be older than 30, though. No, actually, 27 is the limit.

Lucy's job is to categorize her clients' expectations and, if necessary, adjust them downwards. These negotiations can sometimes be lengthy, but the matchmaker conducts them with tactical skill and empathy. Because, despite all the businesslike nature, it's also about maintaining hope that the right person is out there.

Confronted with the rigors of the dating business every day, Lucy keeps herself at a distance until she meets Harry (played by the industry's current superstar, Pedro Pacal) at a wedding. The best man is what's known in Lucy's industry as a unicorn: a well-heeled investment banker, rich family, well-mannered, charming, slim, with a full head of hair. It's clear: the agent wants the man for her portfolio.

Harry, however, only wants her. But then the waiter John (Chris Evans), who is actually a moderately successful actor, suddenly appears at their table. He and Lucy moved to New York in their twenties with little money and high hopes. But at some point, Lucy could no longer stand the subsistence life in the overpriced city and broke up with John.

At a wedding, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) meets her childhood sweetheart John (Chris Evans) again.

Source: IMAGO/Sony/LMK

"I hate myself for this," she'd told herself back then, and the attraction hasn't faded at all. But while John still lives in a dingy shared apartment, Lucy has become a self-proclaimed materialist. And she makes no secret of her new outlook on life.

When she first finds herself smooching with Harry in his penthouse apartment, she keeps her eyes wide open to assess the value of the $12 million property. But then a violent event that befalls one of her clients breaks through the matchmaker's hard, professional shell and shakes her certainties.

In the seemingly light-hearted guise of a romantic comedy, "Materialists" delves into the bittersweet reality of the dating business. Without moral judgment, it explores the merciless mechanisms of the relationship market, where love is viewed as the fulfillment of an elaborate set of criteria. Those who can't be matched must adapt to the market—if necessary with leg lengthening, which, like breast augmentation for women, can be a real game-changer for men.

As in her captivating debut, "Past Lives" (2023), director and screenwriter Song creates a love triangle in which there seem to be no right choices. In portraying a profession characterized by relentless categorization, Song rejects any stereotypes and once again impresses with her nuanced empathy in portraying her characters.

Dakota Johnson fills the role of the hardened matchmaker, who begins to question her own ideals, with her characteristic charismatic, profound ease. Even though the film is set in a world of affluence and wealth, it points far beyond its social milieu—and even indulges in a by no means stale, romantic twist at the end.

“The Materialists”, directed by Celine Song, with Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, Chris Evans, 116 minutes, FSK 0, in cinemas on August 21st.