DIRECTOR Michael Showalter
CAST Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter
PLOT Pakistan-born comedian Kumail
(Nanjiani) and grad student Emily (Kazan) start
a relationship that runs into roadblocks. When
a serious illness puts Emily in hospital, Kumail’s
handed an unlikely second chance.
OUT NOW
RATED M / 120 MINS
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THE BIG SICK
VERDICT Edgy and hilarious, Nanjiani and
Gordon’s true story of cross-cultural love is
a Trump-baiting marvel that’s worth the hype.deliciously 2017. From the outset, this sparky
culture-clashing romcom has a modern edge.
It’s easy to see why it stood out at Sundance
this year (and convinced Amazon Studios
to broker a $12 million distribution deal). The
story sits close to the real-life courtship of its
co-writers, Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V.
Gordon. After she launches into a flirty bit of
heckling at one of his shows, Pakistani-American
stand-up and Uber driver Kumail (Nanjiani)
begins a passionate relationship with trainee
psychiatrist Emily (Kazan). He does, however,
withhold that his family are in the process of
finding him a nice Muslim bride, through a series
of excruciating auditions at the family dinner table.
Ultimately, Kumail’s reluctance to own up to
his parents about Emily tears the couple apart.
But when she contracts a serious virus and he’s
the only one available to sign off on a medically
induced coma, her parents arrive (Ray Romano’s
sweetly dopey dad, alongside Holly Hunter’s
snarling terrier of a matriarch) and the stage is
set for a blackly comic tale of love, honesty and
sterile hospital waiting rooms.
It’s a dynamite premise — with hand-
squeezing tension courtesy of Emily’s precarious
status and awkward laughs through Kumail’s
nervy interaction with her parents — but the
execution is just as impressive.The script fizzes with droll, dirty wit (“Were
you available for rides while we were fucking?”
asks Emily after her and Kumail’s first hook-up),
Nanjiani is an engaging leading man while Kazan
works wonders with a character who spends
a large part of the film hooked up to a respirator,
and director Michael Showalter gives the early
hospital scenes an effective, kinetic chaos.
What’s more, despite the regular thrum
of tension-breaking gags, it never pulls big
emotional punches and, commendably, doesn’t
offer easy answers to the thorny questions of
religion, tradition and family loyalty. Kumail’s
clan — bolstered by the hilarious Adeel Akhtar
as his older brother — are never sold out as the
villains, and even one of his prospective brides
gets a multifaceted bit of characterisation.
Not all of it works — the backstage scenes
with Kumail and fellow comics played by Bo
Burnham and Aidy Bryant betray a bit of
improvisational bagginess — but this is a fearlessly
funny achievement. And the ending — which
manages to be satisfying without glibly ignoring
what keeps plenty of couples apart — is perfectly
pitched. JIMI FAMUREWAFACED WITH SOMETHING
as seemingly mundane as the thumbprint
identification system on a smartphone, not many
big-screen comedies will find the potential for
a dark visual gag. Actually, few would spot any
comic potential whatsoever. Not The Big Sick.
Full of sharp observations that acknowledge
everything from the most respectful way to
unlock a coma patient’s phone to the viral
possibilities of a disastrous comedy gig, Kumail
Nanjiani’s (Silicon Valley) Judd Apatow-
produced star vehicle couldn’t be more