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Review: The Big Sick (2017) ★★

<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">As a longtime fan of Kumail Nanjiani’s standup&comma; I had high hopes for <em>The Big Sick<&sol;em>&comma; maybe too high&period; In all fairness to the actors and director Michael Showalter&comma; there were times when it was genuinely funny&period; These moments were not all that frequent&comma; and a lot of the humor felt forced&comma; but the film made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion&comma; which is a rare feat for most contemporary comedies&period; Kumail Nanjiani has an undeniable gift for comedy&comma; wearing a mildly flabbergasted expression at all times as he attempts to reconcile his conservative muslim roots with the world of standup comedy&period; This is a large part of <em>The Big Sick<&sol;em>’s story&comma; and&comma; by and large&comma; it works&period; It’s not great&comma; but it works&period; Unfortunately&comma; it is merely the subplot for a larger romantic storyline that just doesn’t work&period; It is always risky to mix heavy drama with comedy&comma; as filmmakers run the risk of either making the film too serious for audiences&comma; or dulling the comedy so as not to undermine the dramatic moments&period; <em>The Big Sick<&sol;em> somehow makes both of these mistakes&comma; resulting in a rather preachy and cringeworthy experience&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Purportedly based on the real-life experiences of Kumail Nanjiani and his wife&comma; Emily Gordon&comma; the film follows Kumail &lpar;as himself&rpar; and Emily &lpar;played by Zoe Kazan&rpar;&comma; at the onset of their relationship&period; Kumail is a standup comedian looking for his big break&comma; while his parents&comma; Azmat &lpar;Anupam Kher&rpar; and Sharmeen &lpar;Zenobia Shroff&rpar;&comma; try to set him up with various Muslim women in the hopes that he will consent to an arranged marriage&period; Kumail&comma; who is not particularly religious&comma; wants nothing to do with his parent&&num;8217&semi;s machinations&period; After one of his sets&comma; Kumail meets Emily&comma; a non-Muslim white woman&comma; and a relationship quickly ensues&period; However&comma; when Emily discovers that Kumail hasn’t told his parents about her&comma; and that he doesn’t see a future with her due to his family’s beliefs&comma; she breaks up with him&period; Weeks later&comma; Kumail is informed that Emily has been admitted to the hospital with a serious lung infection&period; When he arrives&comma; the doctor insists that he sign the consent forms so that Emily can be put into a medically-induced coma&period; After signing the forms&comma; he calls Emily’s parents&comma; Beth &lpar;Holly Hunter&rpar; and Terry &lpar;Ray Romano&rpar;&comma; who act distant with him since they know that Emily ended the relationship&period; Despite feeling awkward and unwanted&comma; Kumail sticks close by&comma; forming a bond with her parents as they monitor Emily’s health&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>The Big Sick<&sol;em> works best when Kumail uses the material from his standup as part of the story&period; The clash between Pakistani and American culture is frequently humorous&comma; and is just about the only interesting aspect of the film&period; Without it&comma; the whole thing feels like little more than an after school special&comma; teaching us about the evils of prejudice and judging a book by its cover&period; Anyone with a brain and a conscious knows these life lessons&comma; so it just feels like condescension when they are preached at the audience like we are all five year olds gathered around the screen&period; To make matters worse&comma; the film is dreadfully formulaic&comma; clinging to any and all romantic-comedy cliches for dear life&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;1243" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-1243" style&equals;"width&colon; 850px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-1243" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;12&sol;big-sick-300x162&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ray Romano talks with Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick" width&equals;"850" height&equals;"460" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-1243" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Big Sick &lpar;2017&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">There’s one particular moment in the film when it becomes obvious that it is little more than a vapid feel-good movie&comma; with nothing to say of any substance&period; Kumail is doing his standup routine&comma; and Emily’s parents have accepted his invitation to attend&period; When some drunken idiot in the audience starts heckling Kumail with racially-charged remarks&comma; Beth&comma; who up to this point in the film had been very antagonistic toward Kumail&comma; makes a scene defending his honor and lambasting his tormenter&period; It’s one of those scenes that&comma; depending on what kind of person you are&comma; and what kind of films you enjoy&comma; will either bring out tears of joy or induce nausea&period; I fall in the latter category&comma; because to me there is nothing worse than faux-progressivism packaged to satiate our most base emotional appetites&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">While Kumail is definitely the star of the show&comma; and&comma; at least in terms of comedic ability&comma; the most talented member of the cast&comma; the ancillary performances are hit and miss&period; His standup comedy friends are occasionally funny&comma; but more often than not just condescending and obnoxious&comma; although that seems to be done on purpose&period; Standup comedians are funny onstage&comma; but can sometimes be a bit much as friends&period; Kumail’s family functions more as cardboard cutouts of Pakistani Muslims than actual people&period; Though this does amplify a few of the funny moments between Kumail and his parents&comma; it doesn’t do much to support the film’s message of inclusivity and open-mindedness&period; Holly Hunter and Ray Romano both do their part as the grieving parents&comma; but they are some of the worst offenders in terms of sugar-sweet sentimentality&period; When Beth isn’t conflicted over her growing tolerance of Kumail&comma; she’s having fights with Ray over past indiscretions that add little to the story&period; Even Emily’s coma has to take a backseat to make room for the unnecessary drama of their marriage&period; This brings me to Zoe Kazan’s portrayal of Emily&period; I have not seen Kazan in any other films&comma; but if this performance is indicative of her larger body of work&comma; I’m not inclined to seek any of them out&period; She is most believable as a real human being when she is in a coma&comma; otherwise&comma; she is about as bland and two-dimensional as a person can be&period; <&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">While many will enjoy <em>The Big Sick<&sol;em> for the feel-good movie that it is&comma; some of us just can’t get past its many shortcomings&period; The laughs are too infrequent&comma; the drama is out of sync with the comedy&comma; and the message is heavy-handed&comma; to say nothing of the spotty performances&period; Nonetheless&comma; if you can see past all of that&comma; <em>The Big Sick<&sol;em> is a relatively entertaining&comma; albeit flawed exhibition of Kumail Nanjiani’s talent&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1">Rating&colon; <&sol;span><span class&equals;"s2">&starf;&starf;<&sol;span><span class&equals;"s1"> out of 5<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"p1"><span class&equals;"s1"><em>The Big Sick<&sol;em> is available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07193L7RD&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07193L7RD&amp&semi;linkId&equals;1006375daf2818e2075a7a45c727a3b4">here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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