“This borders on love”, “Love at every price”, “love for a visit”, “No remedy for love”, “Plan B for love”, “Love at second glance”: The list of German -loving film titles, which obviously was all about putting the word “love”, but which are also so genetic that it can hardly be kept apart, would be almost endless.
But in the case of “What is Love Value-Materialists”, the question that is preceded by the simple US title “Materialist” in this country is absolutely seriously: According to her two-way Oscarnominated directorial debut “Past Lives” (5 stars from film starts!) This time, Celine Song explores the economic pages of the dating-and thus almost does the opposite of the opposite Sparkling romantic comedy that suggest the trailers.
Nothing has changed over the millennia
Similar to “2001: Odyssey in Space” and “Barbie”, the long-term cynical inventory of the “Love” life of the cave person is emphasized. A Stone Age man brings with his adored flowers, but instead she checks his tool bag to ensure that he can also take care of her – and thousands of years later, nothing has changed in modern Manhattan:
The partner broker Lucy (Dakota Johnson) once left her great dear John (Chris Evans) because he couldn't even pay for parking at her five -year anniversary. Instead, she helps others to be lucky – and always under the premise that dates and marriages are nothing more than commercial transactions anyway. And at a “her” weddings she meets her personal “unicorn” Harry (Pedro Pascal) – a name for the industry for men who have everything: good looks, good family, good training and a lot of money …
Lucy (Dakota Johnson) works as a partner agent in New York, but no longer believes in love.
“What is Love Value-Materialists” is one of the largest cash successes of the US Indie studio A24 to date-and one can assume that many visitors bought a card primarily because they wanted to see a romantic comedy with three particularly attractive stars. A (false) expectation that the trailers also fueled-instead in this high gloss world as a man under 1.80 meters or as a woman over 27, nobody is “worth” (from all who dare to earn no six-digit annual salary-after tax!-
Certainly, the plot for a wedding broker who has to decide between a waiter-like off-off broadway actor and one of the most sought-after bachelors of the New York High Society should be staged as a classic Romcom-but especially in the first hour, Celine Song only apparently follows the laws of the genres, while in truth she is constantly a caustic acid over everything lets romantic drizzle.
Sacrificed the altar of capitalism
Also in the “real” Romcom version of the fabric there would certainly have been a collage in which we were given the particularly bad, crazy or bizarre customers of Lucy. But in “What is Love Value – Materialists”, laughter stays in your throat regularly in such moments: Here you negotiate dream dates, as if it were not about people, but about freely formable things.
This is not so caustic and degrading in a manner that is by no means excessive, but painfully dissecting, that you want to straighten the “Rome” in “Romcom” with an edding thick and fat. Even the idea of breaking your legs several times in order to get out a few more centimeters and thus double its “value” (for $ 200,000 and hell), there is no possibly exposed punch line here. Instead, it only follows the uninterruptible capitalist “dear” logic, which you simply follow.
Harry (Pedro Pascal) looks great and is also rich – but is he automatically the right one?
The first hour of “What is love – materialist” is not what the trailers promise – but it is nevertheless a pretty good, if certainly not a feel -good film. But then Celine Song wants to go to the home stretch where we all guessed from the start that the trip will go – but that is not so easy after the acidic start. Since she has to drive up a particularly blatant story twist to dissuade Lucy from her mainly-rich mantra and bring back to the old “poor but happy” romcom-moral.
But this is unfortunately a little gently, quietly and staged and played in contrast to average romcoms: a more difficult, apparently also sexual assault becomes a bit to the purpose, in order to provide a moral occurrence of the protagonist-depending on the perspective, depending on the perspective.
Conclusion: “What is love – materialist” is a classic wolf in sheep's clothing – which presents itself as a classic Romcom, turns out to be the economic dimension of dating, at least in the first hour. If Celine Song tries to turn back to a more classic love story in the second half, the film comes out of kick. But even that doesn't change the fact that you like to spend 115 minutes with the star trio Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal, which is as attractive as it is playing.