The Big Sick – Film Review

The Big Sick is an original comedy that tells the real life love story of the courtship of Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon. There aren’t many films with Pakistani leads in Hollywood films lately and this film does a great job of having a positive and realistic portrayal of someone of that background in a holistic light. What the film gets right is making you slowly build their personal relationship between Emily and Kumail. By the time they get close enough to be regularly dating, that when she becomes ill you feel that they have a connection as humans and not just as actors playing lovers.

I do appreciate the authenticity that both Kumail and Emily put forth to make sure this films tone was honesty and had something to say about relationships in the 21st century. The political conversations it brings up I applaud in that just because someone of a certain background doesn’t mean that they are off that affiliation of extremists. And the film never treated the main character as someone who wasn’t accepting of others and they chose to have a life of self happiness rather than being forced into a life they didn’t want.

Your travel will be ready as soon as he puts on his pants.

Films like these aren’t around as much these days. There are so many romantic comedy classics of the 80’s, 90’s and some of the 00’s. But there aren’t many of the recent years of note. Judd Apatow’s 2007 film “Knocked Up” is what I would conceive a classic rom/com of the 00’s and I’m glad that he attributed to this films production. Though I am glad he got attached to the project, I feel that his tone slightly hindered the project from being able to shine in its own tone, but I can look past that as I felt the characters they created out of writing the film really resonated to where you could relate to any one of them. Ray Romano and Holly Hunter shine in this film as a Emily’s parents. They felt real and their struggle as parents seemed reasonable. I liked the actors they chose to play Kumail’s family. They didn’t feel stereotyped and felt like real people and not some imaginative depiction of a Palestinian family.

My only negatives with the film included the run-time. It felt like a typical Apatow production where it could have been shorter. There could have been some punchier comedy throughout. The second act really shines with the comedy. Overall the typical tropes of romantic comedies do come into play and though the film does avoid a fair amount of them there are a couple of exuberant plotlines that could have been shelved for a slimmer film, but I highly recommend seeing this as a shining example that its about creating great characters who happen to be of different ethnicities/backgrounds coming together and falling in love, not a story to push a social narrative.

8/10