The Big Sick shines a light on an all-American family
Stories always have a way of evolving. Even though every story has been told, a quality storyteller can find a new way express an old sentiment. This allows audiences to experience the comfort of the familiar as well as the excitement of something original. This happens time and time again in film, across genres and eras.
Movies use recognizable themes and structures and express them in a more modern fashion. This isn’t always the case—action movies, romantic comedies, and Oscar bait dramas, etc. more often than not simply hit the same notes, with the expectation that one audience will buy a ticket for the film, enjoy for a time, and forget about it in a day or two.
Hollywood often feels like a player piano. It’s nice enough to listen to, but eventually you’ve heard all the songs. But sometimes, a film breaks the mold. The best films move beyond the expected audience and reach out to all audiences. There’s always an action movie that romance fans can love.
There’s always a rom-com that softens the heart of even the edgiest of horror fans. Good films are a genre all their own. We may disagree about which ones transcend, but the goal of any film should be to tell a story that includes everyone. The Big Sick is one of those films.
The Big Sick is loosely based on the real life relationship between comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, screenwriter Emily Gordon. Everyone has a movie inside them—everyone has a story that could be told through film and appeal to a mass audience. The simple truth of life is that we all share experiences that are easily identifiable.
This story is theirs, but the themes found within are universal. Kumail plays himself—a struggling comedian and Uber driver from Chicago. Kumail comes from a traditional Muslim Pakistani family, who expect him to pray regularly, study for the LSAT, and participate in an arranged marriage with another Pakistani.
The scenes with his family are particularly entertaining, in that it highlights a culture unfamiliar to most Americans. The arrangement is not unlike an audition process—Kumail’s mother interviews qualified candidates and brings them by the house at dinner time, always claiming they just “dropped by.” The girls bring a headshot with them, along with a short bio of stats and interests, and Kumail keeps them in a cigar box by his bed.
But ultimately, this story isn’t about them. This story centers on a charming, all American girl named Emily (Zoe Kazan) from North Carolina who wins Kumail’s heart, even if he can’t admit it right away. He’s torn between her and his family, making excuses to both. Everything changes, however, when Emily gets sick.
The above description makes the film sound like a typical romantic drama, but it’s not at all. The Big Sick is deftly funny; much of the material pulled from Nanjiani’s standup and enhanced by a talented, exceptional script. Nanjiani, who most know from HBO’s Silicon Valley, shows he is more than just a “Pakistani Denzel,” showing off a range not seen in his previous work.
His counterpart is equally effective in her role, with comic timing and range that equal’s Nanjiani’s. Many romantic comedies follow a standard format—meet cute, developing relationship, easily explained misunderstanding, nearly lost love, reconciliation. The Big Sick has these pieces but expands on them by inject a healthy dose of reality into the tale.
To be fair, serious illness is a something of a shortcut to inject drama into a comedy. It’s almost cheating. But here, the sickness is more of a vehicle to expand into the territory of family and expectations. In this romantic comedy, the romance almost takes a backseat to cultural commentary.
It’s clever way to expose mainstream moviegoers to a culture that is often stereotyped, engaging them with a family that seems foreign but in reality bear many similarities to their own.
The Big Sick is another dark horse summer movie that surprises and entertains in ways not usually found during blockbuster season. It joins with Baby Driver as a shining star among comic books, cartoons, sequels, and cartoon comic book sequels. Take time out from Marvel for a truly exceptional experience.