Film Review - The Big Sick (2017)

The Big Sick is co-written by and stars Kumail Nanjiani a Pakistani man who falls in love with a white woman named Emily (Zoe Kazan) but their cultural differences see the 2 separate and Emily then falls into a coma which makes Kumail realise that he has made a mistake and has to make it right.

I was pretty mixed on this movie in all honesty but before I delve into that I want to talk about what I did like and firstly the performances here weren’t all that bad I do like Mr Kumail as a romantic lead and he has a certain charm to him that makes him endearing to you watching him, Kazan is pretty good here as well and both Ray Romano and Holly Hunter are very good here as Emily’s parents.

I also really liked how this movie explored how a cross cultural/inter racial relationship might look like and how the differences are inherent especially for someone who immigrates to a Western country like the United States and has grown up in that country and with its values for so long that that’s how they see themselves as compared to their more traditional minded parents who still want to cling to the old ways despite their new home and how a relationship with a white woman can be complicated at times.

Unfortunately as great as that is the film tries too hard to go for laughs and I didn’t really find it to be all that funny and the more I’ve thought about this movie the more I wish it had a more serious tone to it instead of trying to be a nice and sweet rom com for some relationships at least to me of which this is one of should be treated more seriously as they do have serious repercussions and seeing these really awkward laughs in the film kinda pulled me out of it and it’s a shame as its subject matter was really interesting.

And so that was the Big Sick which had an interesting look at a cross cultural relationship but I wish it hadn’t felt like a twee rom com and been more serious minded, 2 and a half out of 5.