Ethical non-monogamy? New comedy Splitsville is more about two flawed couples getting messy

By Sarah Louise Smyth, Lecturer in Department of Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex

Is it by accident or design that Dakota Johnson has become the star for zeitgeisty sex and romance films? Johnson’s breakthrough role was as Anastasia Steele in the enormously popular Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). Adapted from the book series by E.L. James, it spawned a franchise that, for better or worse, has come to define BDSM in the mainstream cultural imagination.

In Celine Song’s recent film, The Materialists (2025), Johnson plays Lucy, a high-end matchmaker who enables wealthy individuals to bypass the random scrolling and swiping of dating apps and experience a hand-picked romantic…

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