Rating: 4/5 Stars
If there is one movie genre that I've never felt particularly connected to, it's romantic comedies. I guess they just aren't for me, as I tend to enjoy movies with a darker edge to them. So, when I saw trailers for "The Big Sick", I really didn't really think too much of it, until it got an impressive underground and eventually larger mainstream following. This film tells the true story of how Pakistanian comedian Kumail Nanjiani met and fell in love with Emily Gardner. Emily eventually gets very sick, and Kumail has to interact with her parents, while also dealing with pressure from his parents, and his conflicting feelings on whether to choose family or Emily.
This movie really surprised me in the best way possible. While it certainly has elements that fit within the genre of romantic comedy, there are a lot of parts of it that are quite unconventional for this genre as well. One of the things that impressed me most about this film was the focus Kumail's deep struggle on whether to choose his family and his culture or to choose Emily. For the rest of Kumail's family, their Muslim culture is very important to them: for example, they pray five times a day and they believe in arranged marriages. Kumail is at a crossroads of whether he actually believes in his family's religion anymore, and the audience sees that struggle play out in sometimes uncomfortable ways, whether it's very tense conversations between family members or Kumail getting into an intense argument with Emily. It's not often you see American movies exploring a religion like Islam, and since this movie was written by someone who was involved in this religion (Kumail himself), I really feel like I was able to gain some knowledge on it. It's clear the film has more on its mind than just focusing on the romance.
Of course, it is important for one to like the main romantic couple in the movie for this genre to work. And I've gotta say, I loved Kumail and Emily, thanks to great writing and superb acting. Nanjiani is actually playing himself in the movie, which sounds like something that could be easy. But I don't think it possibly could be, as he is brutally honest about the very flawed and human parts of himself. He puts them on display for moviegoers to see, and it left me astounded at just how fully fleshed out Kumail was. I always find it hard to write anything about myself without glossing over stuff, and Kumail could've easily taken that route, but he doesn't, and that only makes the likeable parts of him even more apparent. He just seems like a likeable person in general, and I loved following him in the movie. Though Zoe Kazan as Emily is really only in the movie at the beginning half and ending moments, she still shines in her role as well. She just exuded her emotions to the fullest extent, I felt she was always full of life and fully invested in everything she did. That's why it hurts so much for me when I saw her becoming increasingly upset at Kumail, as it feels so realistic when she's angry. Her human emotions never feel like acting; Kazan just disappeared into her role. The chemistry between our to leads is impeccably well executed. They felt like an entirely real couple every moment they were on screen together. My favorite performance actually has to go to Ray Romano as Terry, Emily's father. I haven't gotten the opportunity to see Romano in more serious roles, but he really just nails it here. In his comedic moments, I couldn't stop laughing, Romano still has great comedic timing and delivery. He really brought so much to this character, and to see Terry beyond just being Emily's parent is an interesting idea. In rom coms, I feel as though usually parent figures are put to the side or are stereotypes. That is not the case here. The same goes for Holly Hunter as Beth. Her character starts out as someone who seems unlikable, but she becomes entirely charming and interesting as the movie goes on. Other highlights include a surprisingly subdued performance by Bo Burnham as CJ, and Zenobia Shroff as Kumail's mother Shareef.
There are only a few issues I have with this movie. One of them is that the movie can stay in one tone for too long. In the comedic moments, it can sometimes be complicated to catch all the jokes because of how they keep on coming, and there's just quip after quip. Now granted, this isn't a huge problem, but it was still something I noticed. The same can be said for the darker moments, as they can almost made the movie feel a little too sad in some moments, and actually made me forget that I was watching a comedy. The serious moments were always executed well, but it just felt like they could've been cut down a bit. I also felt as though the ending of the movie went on a little bit long.
I can now definitely understand why this movie got so much attention. It's just so irresistibly charming, thanks to the very real feeling conversations between characters and the superb performances by a dynamic cast. The movie can occasionally falter with focusing on one tone for a little too long, but it was never such an issue that stopped me from just having a fun time with this movie. "The Big Sick" both stays and defies the conventions of rom coms, making it accessible for the audience it's going for as well as applicable to an entirely new audience. I definitely see Kumail having a bright future ahead of him as a writer and a comedian.
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