In The Big Sick, Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) is a struggling stand-up comedian of Pakistani descent who meets and falls in love with a white graduate student named Emily (Zoe Kazan). Kumail is stuck trying to reconcile their fast developing relationship with the pressure from his more traditional Muslim parents (Zenobia Shroff and Anupam Kher) wish for him to marry a Pakistani woman of their choosing. After finding out about his hesitancy, he and Emily breakup and she suddenly comes down with an illness that forces her into a coma. While staying at her bedside with her mother and father, Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) Kumail begins to discover his own voice.
The Big Sick is a fascinating look at a person struggling to reconcile their identity within the culture and land that they’re now a part of with the expectations and pressures of their ancestral culture and traditions. Kumail is stuck trying to live up to the standards set for him by his parents and trying to stay in their good graces while his experiences as a first generation American have given him a taste of the freedom of choice that deep down, he’s not willing to relinquish. Trying to battle the perception one has of themselves with the expectation that society and those around them have placed upon them is a struggle that everyone has felt at some point or another. That universal feeling is what creates a connection between the film and the viewer, but seeing it through the prism of a foreign cultural practice makes this powerfully unique. The Big Sick provides the viewer with a take on cultural practices that we’ve all heard about but rarely get an up close and personal look at. The fresh perspective and story direct from those who have lived it make the film penetrating and immensely compelling. The film even takes care to briefly present the issue from the perspective of the women in prospective arranged marriages through Khadija (Vella Lovell), the last of the numerous potential mates that is foisted upon Kumail at the behest of his mother. In the short but emotionally resonant cameo, Khadija laments the pressure of being told what she deserves and having to find it soon. The film could have easily left this side of the coin out and focused solely on Kumail’s plight but its inclusion is a nice touch that enhances the weight of what the protagonist is fighting.
Aside from its emotional core, The Big Sick is consistently, laugh out loud funny. The jokes and humor always land and its filled with both witty one liners and humor that fits naturally within the dialogue. The humor is well written as non-comedic actors like Schroff and Kher come off just as funny as the professional comedian Nanjiani. The Big Sick also knows when to inject humor and when more emotional scenes need to breathe, not stepping over the moment in an effort to invoke any laughs. The humor involving Islam and Kumail’s immigrant background is also where the presence of a minority writer originating from these cultures shine through and it doesn’t feel like they are being lampooned.
Kumail Nanjiani is magnificent in a potentially star turning role. The film’s superb balancing of comedy, drama, and emotion is embodied in his acting that is consistently all of the above. He is convincing as a conflicted man trying to find his place. The supporting ensemble helps to move along the drama and add to the film’s many laughs. Kazan does well with her screen time as the love interest, selling a woman that has been crushed by her partner’s inability to stand up for their love against his cultural mores. Their romance is believable and convincing and by the end of the film, you’re rooting for them to work as a couple. Much of the film features Nanjiani with the great Hunter and Romano and this important chemistry experiment succeeds as well. Their relationship as an ex-boyfriend and his ex’s family forced together in grief works like a charm and hits all the requisite emotional notes. Both Romano and Hunter are believable as a long-term married couple who subtly teach Kumail about love through their own displays of its ups and downs. Much has been made about Romano’s performance and its award potential and while I’m not ready to go that far, it is a very good performance. Schroff and Kher are funny as Kumail’s parents but also provide the emotional heft as his cultural roots pulling away at his lust for independence.
The Big Sick is the perfect mix of funny and poignant and thought-provoking. The story told of a person struggling to find themselves is a universal one, but this story presents from a new vantage point that deserves examination and receives that accounting in full. It is also hard to ignore the humanization it provides to two much maligned groups in our current times, Muslims and immigrants. We see those universal struggles presented to us through a fictional portrayal of groups that are regularly stereotyped and presented in one dimensional ways. But even apart from the progress made in that area, the film is simply a charming, engaging, and funny story about self-discovery and love that is one of the year’s best.
Image: Amazon Studios
