Starring
Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Adeel Akhtar,
Zenobia Shroff, Anupam Kher, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant, Rebecca Naomi
Jones. Directed by Michael Sowwalter. (2017, 120 min).
LIONSGATE
The
Big Sick is about defying tradition in more ways than one, and not quite the movie it was promoted as, which is ultimately a positive. After all, the last thing we need is
yet-another rom-com with two seemingly incompatible lead
characters. While this film has some of those elements, calling it a
romantic comedy doesn't really do it justice.
I
often review rom-coms with my wife, who truly loves genre (and its inherent predictability), and
this isn't what she was expecting. The Big Sick is indeed very
funny on occasion, as is the obligatory meet-cute between Kumail
(Kumail Nanjiani, playing himself) and Emily (Zoe Kazan). He's a
struggling stand-up comedian from a Pakistani family, while she's
studying to be a therapist. For the first third of the story, Kumail
is torn between the expectations of his family - their tradition
of arranged marriages - and his growing love for Emily. But when she learns his family doesn't even know
about her - and he's unwilling to say whether or not they even have a
future together - she breaks up with him.
 |
| "Hi, I'm Travis Bickle. Where to?" |
After Emily ends up hospitalized in a medically-induced coma, the
film becomes Kumail's story. Her illness is the catalyst
for him to weigh personal happiness versus cultural tradition: He's
expected to marry a Pakistani girl, yet it's Emily who makes him
truly happy. During this time, he meets Emily's parents (Holly Hunter
& Ray Romano), who are slow to warm up to him at first, but their
own views on relationships - including their own tumultuous marriage
- leave Kumail with a few epiphanies about his own life, family and, of
course, how he feels about Emily.
The
bulk of the film focuses on Kumail's internal conflict, and while
it's quite charming and often poignant, actual laughs grow fewer and farther
between. On a personal note, Emily's illness sort-of hit my wife and
I a little too close to home, since a similar, potentially
life-threatening lung infection once landed me in the hospital for
several months.
Still,
The Big Sick is an engaging film, partially because it indeed
defies expectations, but also because the characters and performances
feel authentic. The knowledge that the entire film is based on how
Kumail Nanjiani & Emily Gordon met in
real life (and they wrote this together) makes the viewer more emotionally invested. On the other
hand, it's also kind-of a spoiler regarding the ultimate outcome, but
that's nitpicking. After all, what good's a rom-com - even one that breaks with tradition - if it doesn't end happy?
EXTRA
KIBBLES
FEATURETTES:
"A Personal Journey: The Making of The Big Sick";
"The Real Story" (featuring Nanjiani and real-wife Emily
Gordon); "The Big Sick: The Other Stuff" (alternate gags);
"The Bigger Sick: Stick Around for More Laughs"; SXSW Film
Fest Panel
AUDIO
COMMENTARY - by Nanjiani, Gordon, producer Barry Mendel &
director Michael Showalter
DELETED
SCENES
DVD
& DIGITAL COPIES
KITTY CONSENSUS
PURR-R-R...LIKE A GOOD SCRATCH BEHIND THE EARS
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