THE BIG SICK
Director: Michael Showalter
Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, Anupam Kher, Zenobia Shroff, Adeel Akhtar, Bo Burnham, Aidy Bryant
Rating: (M)
Five stars (out of five)
It could have been a disaster except that their story is very different from the usual and Nanjiani has learned from his stand-up apprenticeship that the more true the joke is to you, the more likely it is to get a response.
Which makes for an incredibly truthful romantic comedy. Nanjiani plays Kumail, a beginner stand-up comic who was born in Pakistan but grew up in America. Kumail struggles with being a good son to his traditional family while pursuing his own very Westernised goals.
When he meets Emily (Zoe Kazan) they quickly decide that a relationship between them is not on the cards. Emily is busy at grad school pursuing her own career goals and Kumail thinks he will end up in an arranged marriage with one of the nice Pakistani women that his mother (Zenobia Shroff) keeps inviting around.
Yet as much as they agree that they should probably stop seeing each other, they keep dating. So far so normal, until one night Kumail gets a phone call from one of Emily’s friends: she is very sick and has been taken to hospital. By the time Kumail gets there, her health has deteriorated and she has been put in an induced coma.
Then Emily’s parents, Terry (Ray Romano) and Beth (Holly Hunter), arrive, and are less than impressed with their daughter’s sort-of boyfriend.
- Christine Powley
