The Big Sick is a real tonic

Romantic comedies always have happy endings; it’s in the rules. It doesn’t matter whether the couple meet cute or meet angry – another rule – they always end up together. In that sense, since we know the destination, romcoms have to stand or fall on how well they chart the journey.

The Big Sick is based on the true-life romance of Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon who co-wrote the script which has been shepherded into production by Judd Apatow, the current king of comedy. Our heroes, Kumail, played by Nanjiani (above left), and Emily, played by Zoe Kazan (above right), meet cute at a comedy club where Nanjiani is performing. Their relationship develops promisingly until she develops a rare condition that puts her in a coma; he is then left at a loss.

I know it’s kind of a big plot twist but this,for me, is the weakest part of the movie. The film is heavily promoted as being their real-life romance and it is very difficult to pick up a newspaper or magazine without Nanjiani and a happily recovered Gordon telling their story. So now we know the destination and we also have a fair idea of the journey. Since we know that she must come out of the coma and they have to end up together this poses a problem for the dramatic construction.

With Emily missing for most of the second act and a good part of the third, the film really becomes about Kumail’s relationship with the two sets of parents; his own and hers. The relationship with Emily’s folks – lovely performances from Ray Romano and Holly Hunter – is more traditionally prickly romcom material.

It’s his relationship with his own parents – again great work from Anupam Kher and Zenobia Shroff – which is the more interesting. They are traditional Pakistanis who have made a success of life in America but they still want to raise their family in traditional Pakistani values, especially in arranged marriages. This is the cue for an endless succession of family dinners with prospective suitors which again can’t go anywhere because we know how it must end.

Although it is possibly the most interesting part of the story, this relationship is curiously unexamined. It is the one storyline which remains unresolved and, curiously, it’s the one story where I really wanted to know how it turned out.

The Big Sick is a classic millennial movie- the best gag in it is an Uber gag -   and since I was born closer to the last millennium than this one then perhaps it’s not for me. That said, like 500 Days of Summer (2009) it is smartly written and very well played and gets under your skin in the best way.

The worst you can say about The Big Sick is that, for me, it felt a little undercooked in places. However, it is a film of enormous charm and you will leave the cinema feeling better than you went in which has to count for something in this day and age.