Valentine’s Day may be a rather silly holiday, but it is a wonderful excuse to celebrate love and romance in the movies. In that spirit, check back each day leading up to February 14th for a cinematic advent calendar of recommendations presented as mini-reviews.
Day 12: The Big Sick (2017)
Dir. Michael Showalter
Kumail Nanjiani, Zoe Kazan
Logline: When his ex-girlfriend falls into a mysterious coma, a Pakistani stand-up comedian must suddenly help her parents navigate her healthcare, and grapple with what went wrong.
Why you should watch: The Big Sick, in arguably uncontested fashion, wins the gold medal for the most incredible Stranger than Fiction™ story in all romantic comedies. Based on the actual experiences of co-writers and real-life married couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick is also a screenwriting clinic on how to blend suspense and humor. When Emily (Zoe Kazan) slips into a coma due to a mysterious medical condition, her ex-boyfriend and stand-up comedian Kumail (Kumail Nanjiani) is suddenly on the hook to watch out for her and help her mom (Holly Hunter) and dad (Ray Romano) get her the best medical help. That narrative melding of the high stakes connected to an unknown illness and the objective hilarity of a man spending undue amounts of time with his ex’s parents should not work, but it does, and beautifully so. Add into the mix Kumail’s struggles to balance his life goals with his strict Muslim family’s expectations, and you have a singular film of remarkable vibrance.
There is so much to recommend The Big Sick, but in this short space, I would like nothing more than to shout out the bonkers good performances from Kazan, Nanjiani, Hunter, and Romano. Kazan has the task of selling Emily in a briefer span before spending the rest of the movie in a coma, and she does so brilliantly. She especially crackles in scenes with Nanjiani because of their fabulous chemistry. For his part, Nanjiani steps into a story based on his life, playing an autobiographical version of himself, and does so without an ounce of preciousness. His and Gordon’s script paints him as both a caring human and a struggling man who has so much he needs to figure out. Once Hunter and Romano enter, the three of them crack up to be one of the genre’s most memorable and endearing trios. Hunter and Romano both bring such heart to parents terrified for their daughter, but with backgrounds in situational and snappy comedy, they also fire off jokes like nobody’s business. Add it all up and you have a top-notch script brought to life by comedy all-stars.
Of course, some of the suspense of The Big Sick is sapped by knowing the real-life couple wrote it together, but I promise you hardly care during the experience. This film is far too funny and charming to let a little thing like stakes get in the way.
Where you can watch: Streaming on Prime. Rent on Apple, YouTube, and elsewhere.
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Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.
