The big sick review: a little perverse rom-com

The Big Sick (15, 120 mins) Director: Michael Showalter  Stars: Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan, Holly Hunter Presumably there’s a pun here on Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, which again would

have been a more appropriate title.  And this isn’t the only strange decision made by director Michael Showalter. Pakistani-American comic Kumail Nanjiani plays himself as he recreates his

early relationship with his wife Emily V Gordon (played by Zoe Kazan). The couple met at a comedy club when Kumail was a struggling stand-up, split up after a blazing row and got back

together after he helped nurse her through a medically-induced coma. As this is about a comedian and co-written by a comedian, I readied myself for a barrage of well-honed gags. But the film

doesn’t seem overly interested in delivering one-liners. After a few (I assume) deliberately awkward early stand-up routines, the focus shifts to drama. Kumail, who moved to Chicago from

Pakistan as a teenager, is caught between two cultures. While he is busy plotting his career and romancing smart psychology post-grad Emily, his pushy mother (Zenobia Shroff) is researching

law schools and auditioning Pakistani brides. This is a dilemma that will be familiar to many in melting pot America and multi-cultural Britain. After East Is East,  My Big Fat Greek Wedding

and countless “immigrant experience” dramas it probably feels a tad familiar to everyone else, too. After we buy into the couple during their breezy courtship, they split when Kumail

chooses family over romance. Then that weird title comes into play. Emily is struck down with a mystery illness and when the doctors decide to induce a coma it falls to Kumail to sign the

consent form and track down her parents. Meeting the in-laws has been mined for laughs plenty of times already but there’s heart as well as humour in Kumail’s awkward relationship with

Emily’s parents Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano). At first Beth is openly hostile to the man who has just dumped her daughter but after they bond at her bedside, a touching

relationship begins to develop. The real Emily co-wrote the script with Nanjiani and you can feel genuine affection for her father in the bumbling Terry. “Nine/11? I mean, I’ve always wanted

to have a conversation about it... with people,” he says to Kumail, in a toe-curling attempt to break the ice. “You’ve never talked to people about 9/11?” Kumail replies.  This horribly

awkward conversation quickly develops into the film’s funniest and edgiest scene but only when its leading lady is unconscious is this rom-com really alive.