*slight spoilers ahead*
2. Is this real life? - First, I don't think "matchmaker" is a viable career in 2025. None of this felt like real life. But I also think this film presents dating as a very black & white enterprise and I just don't believe that's true? At least I hope it's not true. Like, sure, everyone has their preferences but I think any sane person knows that it's not realistic to find someone by checking off a box of those preferences. I kind of appreciate that this film switches up the materialistic dating preferences to women's views on men because I feel like it's usually the opposite (they do show both genders in this, but a lot of the focus is on how women view men as dating options), because men do have some insane pressures too - like height and finances. I met my husband through a dating app but I definitely did not check boxes that he had to be over 6ft and make $300k a year. That's INSANE. I do tend to prefer tall men - and unfortunately, a lot of women do too. But it's not a deal-breaker? And it shouldn't be. And OF COURSE it's nice if you meet someone you like and they happen to make a lot of money, but again, it's INSANE to think that's realistic. There is a happy medium, of course. I feel like Johnson's choices in this are such opposite ends of the financial spectrum. But the REALITY is that you can probably find a nice guy that you're attracted to, who is financially secure (i.e can pay his bills and take you out to a nice dinner occasionally), and that's *usually* a sign of maturity and responsibility (I say usually because family wealth will most likely be a sign of the opposite - men who don't grow up because they don't have to). It's okay to care about materialist things, but I don't think anyone believes those things are the be all and end all in a relationship. And if they do, then they deserve to be miserably alone.
3. Is this bad acting? - Well, yes AND no. Dakota Johnson is a delight and I love her. If she didn't star in this, it would be a 2 star film (I rated it 3 stars). But I think the other stars of the film - Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal are horrendous in this film. And one is simply bad acting. Evans is almost always bad. He was fine as Captain America, and I thought he was Hot in that movie with Anna Faris. But he's painfully bad in more than a few films. And you can add this one to the list. The problem is that the dialogue is a little clunky and sappy (especially the end), and a bad actor emphasizes this. Evans also SCREAMS Boston to me so to have him as a down-and-out New York actor is ridiculous! But in the case of Pedro Pascal - I think he was simply miscast, as he has been in several projects. Everyone wants to jump on the Pascal train (I GET IT!), but there's such a thing as an actor not being right for the role and I feel like casting directors forget about that when they have the chance to book someone big. This is the second role in a row that I've seen him in that just wasn't...right (Gladiator II is the other. I also don't think he's right for the new Fantastic 4 but I'm hoping I'm wrong). Like I said, I GET IT. I adore him - and have since Narcos. And he was the best part of the Kingsman sequel (and that's saying a lot coming from me). But he does not work well with this dialogue at all - it doesn't feel natural at all. My face was literally wincing through his scenes at the end because I felt bad for him. But the biggest problem of all is that none of them had any chemistry together. The whole time, I thought that neither of these men were right for her, so the whole exercise seems like a moot point. A different cast and this may have been another 4 star banger from Song, but with this cast it falls flat.
