The Big Sick

The Big Sick, which is a terrible title, came out this last summer to do middlin' business with great reviews, but I was kept away by the title. It's been lauded on many top ten lists and some key awards organizations (shut out by the Golden Globes, but nominated for the SAG ensemble). It may actually get some Oscar nominations, so I thought I should see it.

I'm of two minds about it. I appreciate that is a romantic comedy with intelligence. I've written here that romantic comedies used to be a genre of films that were worked on by the best of Hollywood, but are now mostly stupid junk that ends up being aimed at women who fantasize about home decor and/or weddings. But The Big Sick is smartly written, drolly funny (not laugh out loud funny, but many smiles) with winning performances.

But! This is a true story how star Kumail Nanjiani met his wife, Emily Gordon (they are the co-writers, Zoe Kazan steps in for Emily). They meet cute, as he's a comedian and picks her up by writing her name down in Urdu (he's from Pakistan). They hit it off but he can't commit to a relationship with her because his family expect him to marry a Pakistani girl, and he would be ostracized if he married a white girl. Understandably, Emily dumps him.

Then comes the sick part. I realize this a true story but that doesn't mean it makes for good drama. Emily gets a mysterious infection and is induced into a medical coma. Her parents (Ray Romano and Holly Hunter) come to her side, and can't get rid of Kumail. He is a constant presence, and the parents get to like him. The problem with all this is that it feels like an adolescent fantasy. It could be a woman's--oh, he was by my bedside the whole time, now I know that he really loves me--but Emily has none of that. Instead it's a male savior complex--I'll help her while she's sick, and she can't help but love me.

Movies about illnesses are a tough sell in cynical times like these. If you keep thinking that this is true, and that the two do actually get married and write the movie together, maybe it will work for you. It almost did for me. Nanjiani's scenes with his family are very good, as he resists their attempts at arranged marriage (every time he comes over for dinner, an eligible woman "drops by"--he keeps their headshots (!) in a cigar box. This is a welcome insight about cultures in America that still retain customs of the old country, even though they want their son to have an American life.

Nanjiani, who is unfamiliar to me (I've never seen his act or the TV shows he's been on) is appealing if a little wooden (he has to explain his jokes, and he keeps apologizing). Kazan is very appealing, but it's Romano and Hunter that steal the show, even though I really can't picture them together. Romano still has traces of his Everybody Loves Raymond character, and Hunter is the usual spitfire, but they give the film a lift during the sometimes maudlin hospital scenes.

I give The Big Sick a modest thumbs up, but it's not Oscar material.