How can The Big Sick be classified? Romantic comedy or family drama or topical story or timeless story? It’s a goodwill gesture that you can use any of those terms and still be correct. Most importantly however, it is one hell of a moving and hilarious film that is among the best movies ever made this year.
Kumail Nanjiani features as Kumail (yo!), a standup comedian from Chicago who begins dating Emily (Zoe Kazan), a grad student he meets at one of his shows. She says she has no time to date, but always makes up reasons to see him and both of them feel they were fated for each other. Unfortunately, Kumail’s traditional Pakistani Muslim parents have no clue about her existence leading to him keeping her hidden from them causing a big row between the two in question.
Spoiler alert: if I describe what happens next it would be too much information for some people, but not really since even the trailers reveal it all plus its based on real life events.
When they break up, Emily slips into coma due to medical emergency and Kumail rushes to her side as directed by her friend. It’s happening so dangerously and frighteningly where she is put into medically induced coma. In that bizarre moment, Beth (Holly Hunter) alongside Terry (Ray Romano), her parents show up thereby making the meeting with them strange for Kumail – now he will have to spend time with two individuals who know why their daughter was so mad at him, and wouldn’t actually mind having him around.
The Big Sick is written by Nanjiani and his wife Emily V. Gordon who created The Meltdown With Jonah And Kumail together with Nanjiani which isn’t surprising given names in comparison to character names meaning it is about their own journey in real life therefore storyline was built around it although there are slight alterations on how things really went down such as the fact that she was not divorced during the coma phase. It is thus reasonable to expect that at the end of this film – unless they decide to give a dark twist to their own love story – Emily will survive and she and Kumail will get together. Yet, it is truly all about the journey, and The Big Sick is a beautiful one.
This would be a pretty decent romantic comedy by all accounts. There’s something really irresistible about Nanjiani and Kazan though, so I am really rooting for them as a couple. This part is very important for Kazan because her character needs to be somebody who we can easily fall in love with, knowing the consequences of her being bedridden for life. In Mahi’s real-life mixed personality disorder plus his own fear of heights makes him look like an animal more than any other human being while he remains what he always has been – an ordinary man who tries to make people laugh without ever getting into trouble with anyone else or standing up against his mother who sets him on dates whenever she thinks it would work out right.
The coma plot, however, happens and leads to Kumail having a totally different relationship with Emily’s parents in another direction. Beth, on the other hand, is very hostile towards Kumail from the start and Terry goes along with him quite well but goes on to form one of the most amazing “meet the parents” stories ever told. In their individual roles, Romano and Hunter are both excellent and have pivotal moments with Kumail that bring out how you can connect with unexpected people.
However, it should be noted that The Big Sick remains a comedy throughout. Even when things are at their bleakest and most serious in this film – as it is in life – humor still stands out as shining through; and gets you past dark periods. For instance, Kumail has huge issues to work on both personally and with his parents; while they all fear losing Emily; however, it is really fascinating how that plays out even though there are no shortcuts or burying these problems. For example: What game could they play to pass time? asked Terry during a conversation between him and Kumail; also there is Beth’s reaction to one heckler during one of her stand-up shows for Kumail among others.
And oh yes! This movie certainly feels like timely since there is an element of inevitability in any story about a Pakistani Muslim living in America right now, not because there was casual racism displayed against Kumail. All of which Nanjiani has portrayed using his characteristic wittiness without ever trying to make it look like he was giving us An Important Message but observing some elements of real life commonality between him or those who resemble him. Furthermore, whenever someone tries doing something different from what members of their family did earlier might find easy sympathizers irrespective of where such a person hails from as long as he/she does not want whatever predetermined guidelines exist.
You have developed this world completely so that you feel like you are in it when you are watching the movie, Nanjiani and Graves make sure of this. Kumail’s parents (Anupam Kher Zenobia Shroff) may live by strict rules, but they love their son a lot; while Naveed (Adeel Akhtar) his brother is someone who has followed them more than Kumail would ever like to even though he is a bit more understanding of what the young man wants. Vella Lovell is also very good as one of the potential brides whom Kumail’s mother has selected for him, and she makes some great point about the situation which he has put her in.
Another example is Michael Showalter who often does heightened and seemingly crazy work both as a director and writer. In his career, he has worked on some very high-concept projects such as co-writing Wet Hot American Summer or They Came Together. However, with The Big Sick this goes to show that he can work within much more realistic settings; thus having bigger emotional payoffs while still managing to give us well-paced films with comedic elements throughout that have strong acting performances all around.
The Verdict
While summer is synonymous with big-budget blockbusters, the Big Sick is a small-scale film that can be as impactful as superhero and robot movies. A good combination of Michael Showalter’s direction, producer Judd Apatow, talent in the cast provided by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon has resulted in this story being both hilarious and highly interesting without seeming too precious or sterilized but instead being somewhere anyone can relate to from an opening scene to the last one and further you will laugh your guts out.
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