Film review: ‘The Big Sick’

Love is never having to say, ‘I'm sorry you're in a coma'...|

If nothing else, “The Big Sick” is encouragement for anyone who aspires to be a stand-up comic at well-attended clubs in spite of the fact that their routines aren’t especially funny.

And, what’s more, this film shows that you can complete your not-especially-funny set, repair to the bar, and win over an attractive stranger by writing their name in Urdu on a cocktail napkin. At least that’s how it works one night for Uber driver and aspiring comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) and the psychology grad student Emily (Zoe Kazan).

A great trick about the film, which is based on the real-life experiences of Nanjiani and his wife and co-writer Emily V. Gordon, is that fictional Emily pushes back so well at Kumail’s occasional condescension. Kazan has the inherent sweetness of people whose bangs are always being blinked out of their eyes but sharply parries many an attempt at mansplaining, including this gem when a B-movie horror flick is popped into the DVD player: “I love it when men try to test my taste.”

Despite being compelled to sleep on an air mattress in his armpit of an apartment, Emily falls for Kumail and is excited to introduce him to her parents. Kumail, on the other hand, feels he can’t introduce Emily to his own father, Azmat (Anupam Kher), and mother, Sharmeen (Zenobia Shroff), devout Muslims who will have an arranged marriage for their boy or nothing.

When Kumail lays out his prayer mat in his parents’ basement he shows devotion to viral internet videos rather than Allah. At first, Azmat and Sharmeen are amused and tolerant of their younger son but that patience is not endless – they move from eye rolling commentary like, “All the time with the comedy,” to stating the hardest thing for many of us to learn: “The American dream is not just about what you want.”

Things come to a head when Emily finds Kumail’s cigar box full of headshots of parentally-approved potential partners he’s rejected. She asks, “Are you judging Pakistan’s next top model?” and, fearful of losing his family, he refuses to commit his future to her.

Then, in a terrible series of events, Emily grows sick and is placed in a medically-induced coma. Thus Kumail meets her parents the hard way – it’s tough to be the funny guy while standing over an unconscious woman on a hospital bed, though he tries his darnedest.

As Emily’s mother, Beth, Holly Hunter cements her national treasure status with a lived-in performance the stuff that Best Supporting Actress Oscar dreams are made of. She digs in to her daughter’s curious diagnosis on one hand while rehashing old fights with her husband Terry (Ray Romano) on the other. While she hardly has the time to look at her daughter’s ex, Terry, in a guileless attempt at small talk, asks a bewildered Kumail: “What’s your stance on 9/11?”

Our hero can only gape his eyes and reply, “… Anti.”

Michael Showalter shoots the film in a style reminiscent of the television episodes he has spent most of his career directing. “The Big Sick” feels more influenced by producer Judd Apatow – it shares themes with his most popular work (such as “Knocked Up”) where the arrested male is overshadowed by more gripping and persuasive characters from an older generation.

Although it’s reliably funny, the film feels long because the ending hinges on the answers to two big questions: whether Emily will come out of her coma and whether she will even want to reunite with Kumail if she awakes.

And we sure hope she does – although her catcalls to the floundering comic might have disrupted his wobbly sets, she was also always the best thing about them.

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