'The Big Sick' - Movie Review

Kumail Nanjiani stars in a movie based on his own life - the bit where he meets and eventually wins his wife. Which is, as it turns out, a very interesting chunk of his life. He was working in Chicago, mostly as an Uber driver and doing stand-up in the evenings, when he met Emily Gardner (his wife Emily Gordon is co-author of the script). She's not sure she wants to be dating, he can't tell his family that he's interested in a woman who isn't Pakistani - and doesn't tell her about his family's expectations. Which eventually leads to a blow-up ... just before she gets extremely sick and nearly dies, which tangles him up with her parents for the first time.

I recently watched the Bollywood movie "Ra.One," which reminded me how incredibly difficult it is to blend tragedy and comedy. So it was a real pleasure to see a movie so shortly after that effortlessly did exactly that - making you laugh as the family sits at Emily's bedside, unsure if she'll live or die. And that's another good thing about this movie: most people know walking into this movie that Nanjiani is married to this woman. And yet you feel their pain, you're terrified with them that she's going to die. It just ... feels real. Which is about the best compliment I can give a movie. That, and it's damn funny: that's one hell of a combination.