THE BIG SICK (A-minus) - What so bad about cute? This heartwarming, touching, laugh-out-loud-funny biography tells the story of Kumail and Emily -- charming young people from vastly different ethnic backgrounds -- and the illness that brought them closer.
Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily Gordon, wrote this script based on the early days of their relationship after meeting in Chicago while he was struggling as a standup comic. Nanjiani (a standout amid the stellar cast of HBO's "Silicon Valley") stars as his younger self, and the adorable Zoe Kazan steps in as Emily, who has a meet-cute with Kumail after heckling him during one of his sets at a local club.
The two have a warm rapport, each with the right level of Gen X sarcasm, but things fall apart after only a matter of months because Kumail refuses to reveal the relationship to his super-traditionalist Pakistani parents. His parents relentlessly try to set him up at family dinners with young Pakistani women who just happen to drop by while in the neighborhood. Kumail keeps a cigar box full of their head shots, but an arranged marriage is just one of the cultural shackles he wants no part of.
Emily finally walks out on Kumail, dooming him to those family dinners and unsatisfying one-night stands. One day he gets a call from a friend of Emily's who asks Kumail to look in on Emily at the ER after she had a fainting spell. Emily takes a turn for the worse, and doctor's pressure him into giving consent to place her in a medical-induced coma.
Emily will spend most of the rest of the movie in that coma. Her parents drive up from the South to be with their daughter, and they want nothing to do with the man who broke their daughter's heart. Beth and Terry are played by Holly Hunter and Ray Romano, who have a fine chemistry with Nanjiani; a few scenes between the men provide nuanced comedy that is rare. Hunter is always welcome whenever she pops up to take on a role. Here she sinks her teeth into the bitter Beth, who billets both men in the same doghouse; it turns out that Terry is in the process of making amends for a vague indiscretion that slowly reveals itself.
This being a charming film about comedians (in the mode of last year's "Don't Think Twice"), Kumail has pithy interactions with his fellow struggling standups, including a sharp Aidy Bryant as Mary, plus a few interchangeable mildly funny guys. (Kurt Braunohler as the hacky Chris is the best of the rest.) They really are just comic set pieces, mere narrative necessities in support of Nanjiani and Kazan (a stand out in "Some Girl(s)" and HBO's "Bored to Death"), who is a crucial bookend to the film, right down to the beautiful echo that closes out the movie.
A running plot line involves a comedy competition that builds toward a showdown in which Kumail must take the spotlight immediately after receiving dire news about Emily taking a turn for the worse. He bombs in epic fashion because he can't focus on anything but his love for Emily.
By this point, Beth and Terry are softening toward Kumail. Meantime, his relationship with his family is disintegrating.He floats in a bizarre purgatory where he finds himself distraught over a woman who wanted nothing to do with him, even in the ER.
This illness is not destined to end in a tragic death -- not in a Sundance darling with Judd Apatow's fingerprints on it. (And if you have heard anything remotely to do with the origins of the film and pay attention to the opening credits, you'll know what to expect at the end.) And speaking of Apatow, his influence is almost certainly connected to the main flaw -- the movie, at two full hours, is about 20 minutes too long, with a third half hour that drags so much you just want to pull the plug on poor Emily.
But Nanjiani and his director, Michael Showalter ("Hello, My Name Is Doris," "Wet Hot American Summer"), strike a perfect balance among the comic voice, the deep romance and the movie-of-the-week medical weeper. You forgive some of the sappier moments, mainly because this all feels grounded in real life, and in real life, sap happens. What Nanjiani and the real Emily have created is not just the feel-good movie of the season but also, arguably, the best film of the year so far.
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