Falling in love is easy. Anybody can do it. And you never quite know when it might happen.
But in order to fall in love, you usually have to date. And dating is hard.
Lucy knows this better than most. She’s a matchmaker at a firm called Adore. If a woman asks her for someone who’s six feet tall, makes over $500,000 a year and doesn’t have a receding hairline, it’s Lucy’s job to deliver.
But Lucy also knows that what most people think they want isn’t what they actually want. Finding real love is not about having every box checked, it’s about having enough boxes checked. Similar economic backgrounds, levels of attractiveness and family values are the things that make a successful match—a successful business transaction. What people really want isn’t love. It’s value: They want to feel like they’re getting a good deal.
Again, Lucy knows this better than most.
Once upon a time, Lucy fell in love with John. Unfortunately, John was poor, and try as she might, Lucy just couldn’t get past that. Her parents had been poor, too. They had constantly fought about money. They stopped valuing each other as a result. And it eventually tore them apart.
Lucy doesn’t want that. Which is why she broke things off with John. But when Lucy meets Harry—a man who’s six feet tall, makes over $500,000 a year and doesn’t have a receding hairline—she begins to question her own standards.
Lucy likes Harry, certainly. And she loves that Harry is rich. He even makes her feel valuable. But is that perceived value enough to marry him?
Or does Lucy need love after all?
Lucy acknowledges and even hates the fact that she values money so much. However, like many of her clients, when she meets a man who checks off all of her boxes (financial and otherwise), she realizes that she’s gotten the formula wrong.
People aren’t pieces of merchandise to be evaluated for their perceived value, she realizes. They aren’t assets in a business transaction. They’re not objects. No, they deserve to be loved for who they are, not for the monetary value they add to the marriage or for their physical appearance.
And as it turns out, that’s the real reason she and John couldn’t make it work before. Yes, they loved each other. But somewhere along the way, they stopped valuing each other as people. They started taking each other for granted, focusing on material assets rather than intangible qualities.
So, both Lucy and John admit their past mistakes and genuinely apologize for how they treated each other. And Lucy apologizes to others for her materialistic views, promising to focus on their intrinsic worth as human beings in the future.
A gay woman says she wants a (female) partner who is a regular churchgoer with conservative political views.
Lucy and Harry kiss many times. In one scene, they remove their coats while kissing and groping. They have sex, but we don’t see the act onscreen. Instead, the camera cuts to the next day with the couple in bed, covered only by sheets.
We see them under the covers in a few other scenes as well. Lucy sometimes dons Harry’s shirts and boxers. We see a shot of Harry’s back while he showers. A man wears a vest with no shirt underneath. Women often wear low-cut, revealing outfits. A man checks Lucy out as she walks by.
Lucy also kisses John several times. And we learn that their relationship was sexual in nature before they broke up. Couples kiss elsewhere. One of John’s roommates lives with his fiancée, whom we hear has an OnlyFans account.
We see multiple couples dancing intimately at a wedding, including several same-sex couples. Dozens of couples also get married at a courthouse, including, once again, several same-sex couples. One of Lucy’s clients is a lesbian.
Men and women both are objectified in some pretty demeaning ways. John is disgusted when he steps on someone else’s used condom.
We hear that a woman was sexually assaulted while on a date set up by Adore. The man followed her into the bathroom, she says. But we’re given no further details regarding what occurred. Later, the same man shows up at her building, pounding on the front door, demanding to be let in. (He flees when she informs him that someone is coming to help her.)
Lucy’s boss tells her that sexual assault is a “known risk” in the matchmaking business. In fact, if you work as a matchmaker for long enough, she says, it’s inevitable because she says that’s just the nature of dating.
There are more than 20 uses of the f-word and about half as many of the s-word. We also hear “d–k” and “h—.” God’s name is abused twice, once paired with “d–mit.”
Lucy and others smoke cigarettes throughout the film. People drink alcohol as well. Lucy’s coworkers celebrate successful matchmaking with champagne in the office. A guy jokes that he thinks his roommate is developing a drinking problem. Two people say they smoke marijuana at parties.
Most of Lucy’s clients come off as shallow and materialistic—hence the title of the movie, obviously. Lucy herself admits to these character flaws, too. Many characters also focus intently on physical attractiveness in a romantic partner, specifically listing things such as height, BMI and age. One woman even specifies her preferred race for a partner.
Several characters express a nihilistic view of marriage. One woman is disappointed in herself for choosing to marry a man, feeling that it’s anti-feminist somehow. The same woman admits she’s only marrying the guy because it will make her sister jealous—because they view marriage as a sort of competition.
A man admits that he underwent an expensive surgery to make himself taller. And a woman says she had a nose job. Neither regrets the change, since they believe it made them more attractive—and certainly gave them more confidence—but it’s a sad reflection of how they viewed themselves and their perceived attractiveness.
John tosses someone’s phone in a blender as revenge for using his charger without permission. Lucy stalks a client briefly, though she does so out of good intentions.
You know, for someone who works as a matchmaker, Lucy doesn’t exactly have the best view of marriage. To her, it doesn’t matter if people love each other: A good match is one where both parties feel like they got a good deal.
Of course, there wouldn’t be much of a story to tell here if someone didn’t come along to change her mind.
Love, Lucy learns, is important. And it can even be found in a world full of materialists. All she has to do is teach herself (and her clients) to focus on the things that will last forever. Money dwindles. Looks fade. But if you value your spouse for who he or she is as a person, if you respect them and, especially, if you love them, then you can build a relationship that will last a lifetime.
The movie ends with a much more positive view of marriage than the one it begins with, but viewers should still exercise some caution here due to several content issues. Harsh language permeates this R-rated romcom from start to finish. We also hear a woman recount how she was sexually assaulted, which could be hard for anyone who’s had a similar experience. Some very unkind opinions about physical appearances could also be hurtful. And casual premarital sex makes a brief (though nonexplicit) appearance as well.
Materialists’ ultimately redemptive view of marriage as a lasting, lifetime commitment is something of a rarity in Hollywood’s landscape these days. We’re happy to give the film credit for that worldview. At the same time, all of that explicit language definitely pushes this otherwise feel-good story out of Hallmark territory.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
