The Big Sick (2017)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  9 / 10

  The Big Sick surprisingly feels fresh despite not being a reinvention of the genre. The ultimate chameleon, there is nothing new in this film that reinvigorates the rom com genre. And yet, somehow, this was fresher then a squeezed lemon dipped in raw juicy love with sweet sugar sprinkled on top. Loosely based on Kumail Nanjiani's life, a stand up comedian rapidly falls in love with a heckler. Having to come to terms with his Muslim upbringing, she confronts his deceit and dramatically falls ill. This...this was just too good. A dramatisation of Nanjiani's love life that balances young romance between him and Emily with mature love between her parents. Integrating Pakistani traditionalism further enabled the eventual ultimatum, choose family or choose the girl of your dreams. Juxtaposing American lifestyles with Muslim values to create an involving love story. I totally became infatuated with every character. Why did this film do so well? How did it feel so fresh? Simple: the screenplay. Absolutely fantastic. The fact it was written by both Kumail and Emily themselves just makes it so perfect. They experienced this, being able to use their stand up roots to craft a consistently humorous script that actually made me laugh, smile and occasionally tear up. Packed full of emotion with perfect character development from all. Holly Hunter is a Goddess, I love her even more. Nanjiani, Kazan and Romano all gave decent performances. There was one scene where Nanjiani shouts at a fast food speaker which unfortunately highlights his inability to act with pure emotion. However for the most part, I thought he was good. As with the typical American rom com, a fairytale-like ending was inevitable. Much to my surprise, it wasn't as happy as one may have thought and I really admire the realism put into the screenplay. You can tell this was handled with a sense of tenderness and wit, both Kumail and Emily should be mightily chuffed with what they have crafted. One of the best rom coms I've seen in a long time and a supremely outstanding original screenplay.

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