The Big Sick
4 stars
Director: Michael Showalter
Stars: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter
Duration: 120 mins
Class: 12
KRS Releasing Ltd

Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) and Emily (Zoe Kazan) meet after she heckles him during his stand-up routine at the local comedy club. They hit it off immediately, they begin to date, have a massive row… and Emily then falls into a coma.

Hardly the stuff of comedy, but The Big Sick is one of the best rom-coms to hit our screens in a long while. It is also a wonderful little story about family, race, religion and tradition and all the complications these issues generate. Kumail struggles to make it on the comedy circuit while staving off his parents’ attempts at an arranged marriage to a fellow Pakistani. Which means, of course, he is hiding his relationship with Emily from them.

That this is based on the incredible but true story of how Nanjiani and his real-life wife Emily Gordon met adds much pathos to a comedy that is genuinely funny. I challenge you to leave the cinema without a silly smile on your face and a warm glow inside from a story that proves that love can survive anything – from culture clashes to coma.

It is, indeed, refreshing that there are no over-the-top histrionics, loutish behaviour or lewd sex – or toilet – humour. Well, there is one toilet joke which works, because it highlights a familiar situation and is not simply there because of its gross factor. As for the rest, the script by Nanjiani and Gordon offers many laugh-out-loud moments mined from the absurd, yet serious, situation they experienced themselves. And they tell the tales, warts and all.

One of the best rom-coms to hit our screens in a long while

We cringe and laugh with Kumail during another weekly dinner with his parents, brother and sister-in-law when, lo and behold, the doorbell rings and one of the plethora of eligible young women his mother hopes to match him up with happens to drop by. It is a situation he patiently tolerates – yet his abject worry of letting his conservative parents down is real and palpable. Just as real is his growing trepidation at his blossoming relationship with Emily, because he knows they will never accept the idea of him dating a white woman, let alone marrying her. Emily’s inability to understand his dilemma frustrates him no end.

Needless to say, the issue of Islam is always lingering in the background, but the film never attempts to offer a solution to the problems inexorably raised by interfaith relationships – that’s not its remit. Instead, it is always handled with grace, genuine feeling and dollops of humour.

The words ‘Isis’ and ‘terrorist’ do appear, inevitably and, while on the one hand it is a sad commentary on the prejudice millions of Muslims face on a daily basis, the script succeeds in finding the funny in the tragic.

Describing his parents’ disappointment that he wants to become a comedian, Kumail explains how they wanted him to become a doctor, the profession for him at the top of their list,followed by engineer, then lawyer. He adds: “And a hundred jobs down there’s Isis… and then comedian.”

That all the characters are richly-drawn and realistically complex is an added bonus. Nanjiani is a critically-acclaimed writer and comedian, best known thus far for his TV work, but his performance proves he can carry drama as easily as he does comedy.

He is funny, sad, strong and vulnerable and you root for him for the get-go. Kazan lies in a bed for the better part of the film, but still paints a colourful portrait of the vibrant, intelligent woman Kumail inevitably falls in love with. The scene depicting their breakup is laced with hurt and anger from the two of them.

Holly Hunter as fierce mama-bear type Beth and Ray Romano as the sheepish Terry, Emily’s parents are both pitch-perfect – initially resentful of the man they know to have broken their daughter’s heart. Their resistance is slowly but surely broken down as the three of them bond over Emily’s fate.

Kudos also to Anupani Euler and Zienobia Sfiroff as Azmat and Sharmeen, who offer a portrayal of loving parents whose desire for their son to retain Pakistani traditions despite raising him as an American comes from a place of true parental devotion and not merely obligation.