Director: Michael Showalter Starring: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano Studio: Amazon Studios Genre(s): Comedy/Drama Rated: R (For language including some sexual references) |
Romantic comedies don’t have to be terrible. I know there is a huge population of the
world that consists of manly men who would never willingly go to one of these
things if their life depended on it.
They feel the movies are beneath them.
That that they aim for the lowest form of comedy that will be
inoffensive and easily digested by fawning women who like to hold handkerchiefs
and go “aww” every chance they get. I
understand this. I understand the
dilemma. In their defense, most of these
movies don’t make any attempt to better themselves. They don’t trust their target audience to
show up for anything that isn’t easy to digest, and so romantic comedies tend
to not stretch their wings or do anything truly funny if they can get away with
doing less. Yet Judd Apatow makes these
very movies that men usually avoid, but manages to draw in that very crowd.
While he doesn’t direct “The Big Sick” himself (Michael
Showalter is in the director’s chair), he saw this screenplay written by the film’s
star Kumail Nanjiani, saw how smart it was, and made a deal with Amazon Studios
to bring it to cinemas. As I watched it,
it dawned on me one of the reasons the movie works is because it’s the kind of
movie you can go see with your parents.
The screenplay seems autobiographical in nature, as Kumail plays a
character that bears his name, who is a struggling comedian trying to make his
name in a very competitive business.
When he isn’t telling jokes, he’s driving for Uber on the side, and
going to family dinners where his Pakistan mother springs potential brides on
him. It is a dilemma for him as he was
raised in America, with America values, yet his family wants him to retain the
Pakistan culture that they were so eager to get away from so many years ago.
This is a storyline that rings true for many immigrants
today and remains a huge culture problem.
This ends up being a bigger problem when he meets Emily (Zoe Kazen) at
one of his shows and starts a serious relationship with her. A relationship he must keep secret from his
parents. When she does find out about
the potential wives his mother puts in front of him, she understandably breaks
up with him, but when she finds herself sick and in need to be put in a
medically induced coma, there’s only one person around who can do this. This is where the movie changes gears and
really becomes about Kumail’s relationship with Emily’s parents: Terry (Ray
Romano) and Beth (Holly Hunter), who come to the aid of their sick daughter but
have no one to stay with. So – even
though the two aren’t dating – Kumail is the only person who knows anyone, which
makes him the person the parents are going to lean on for support and
information.
So, while this is a romantic comedy, it is really about the
relationship between the ex-boyfriend and the parents of his
ex-girlfriend. That probably makes the movie
sound a little kinkier than it actually is.
The film is very sweet and mature for a genre that usually plays things
safe. It is true that the target
audience appears to be the crowd who is going on dates, but what is nice is
that couples can go on a double date with their parents and have everyone find
some common ground. I know that sounds
like a terrible suggestion, as the last thing most people want to do is hold
hands with their girlfriend while her parents are sitting right next to them. But the truth of the matter is relationships
with elderly couple’s matter. You can
learn a lot from their experiences and understand your significant other more
by knowing them. Kumail himself seems to
be surprised how much more he understands about the girl he loves just by
knowing her parents, and just how much perspective he gains by talking to them.
His scenes with Terry offer some of the movies best, as not
only does he get to understand how an American father see’s his child, but Ray
Romano gives one of his best performances as a class act father who has some
dirty laundry of his own he’s been hiding.
I was never a fan of “Everybody Love Raymond,” but I personally loved
Terry. I’m hoping (maybe in vein) that
word-of-mouth will carry “The Big Sick” to box office success so a message can
be sent to Hollywood that people will see romantic comedies if they aim a
little higher and are a little smarter.
Chances are, video on demand is where the future is really going to be
for this movie. Which, let’s be honest,
probably isn’t that bad, since most elderly couples are watching more of their
movies at home and opting to skip the theater altogether. Yep, this is the perfect movie for them.
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, there is a fair amount of f-words and some mild graphical imagery involving surgery. No detailed sex scenes though. Recommended for ages 16 and up.
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