A great movie and romcom. One theme is the math in the dating game. A theme already appearing in the
mother of all matchmaker stories: "Emma" by Jane Austen. The question is "What makes a great match?"
As in "Emma", also here the matchmaker has a problem to build a value system. This is a
problem of economics, the science of value (or "simple math" as Lucy tells). In the matchmaker value system of Lucy,
there is for men first of all "money" and "height". For women it is "age" and "beauty".
The movie manages to ridicule these metrics, even so the world seems to operate with those.
(I only learned through this movie that there are surgeries which increase the height of
men, by breaking the legs repetitively.) There are a few parallels between "Materialists"
and "Emma". The matchmakers have to deal with reality, Emma in "Emma" fails to match "Miss Smith" with
Elton. Lucy in "materialists" had to deal with one of er clients attacking the date.
In the end, Emma starts to understand her own heart and the value of "love".
The movie is well played by fine actors, even the side roles work. Chris Evans (who plays the "almost broke actor")
brings in a bit of comic relief. He was also one of the actors that made "Knives out" fun to watch.