Sick Out

The Big Sick (2017) was one of the "it" movies that everyone talks about, and presumably goes to see. We watched it on DVD as soon as we got the chance. It is based on relationship between the writers, an Americanized Pakistani standup comic and an American woman who gets very very sick.

Kumail Nanjiani (playing himself) is a Chicago standup with a decent routine, some friends in the biz, and a tiny apartment he shares with another (much worse) comic. One night, he is heckled by a young woman (Zoe Kazan based on co-writer Emily Gordon). Although they just insult each other, they quickly wind up in bed. She doesn't want a relationship, and his family wants to arrange a marriage for him with a nice Pakistani girl, so they try to keep it casual. But they keep coming back to each other. He doesn't tell his family he has a shiksa girlfriend, and they keep trying to set him up - with very nice young Islamic women, I should say. When Helen finds out about this, she feels like he is keeping his options open, and finally breaks up with him.

Then she gets sick - like medically induced coma sick. Kumail gets her to the hospital and calls her parents (Ray Romano! and Beth Gardner). They aren't too thrilled by him - not because they are racist (more than usual) but because he broke their little girl's heart. But they are forced together by the medical emergency and learn to get along.

A couple of things: You might be thinking that this doesn't sound like a very original plot. You're right, the outline is nothing new. The goodness comes from the honesty not the originality. Also, the humor is mostly on the subtle side. There are many family dinners where Kumail's family berates him for all sorts of things - like his bearded brother wants him to grow a beard, and his father, who has a mustache, suggests that at least a mustache would look good. I was thinking that his family were such jerks I would avoid them altogether. But I saw Nanjiami mention that he wanted to show the humor in his family and realized that they were all just straight-faced kidders. But I still can't tell whether the little bits of his stand-up routine are supposed to be funny, mediocre, or somehow meta.

Actually, I didn't find this terribly funny, not like, say, Get Out. Like Get Out, though, it's strength is in its honesty. It's a real story about real people, and people you don't always hear about.