The Big Sick

2017 romantic comedy

Rating: 15/20 (Jennifer: 16/20)

Plot: A struggling comedian from one of the countries ending in -stan meets and falls for a heckler at a club, but his family's cultural background gets in the way of their relationship. Then, she gets sick, and he realizes that she's even hotter when she's in a coma.

I've been more emotional than usual the last month or so as I approach another birthday that I wasn't supposed to even have. I was supposed to die at 42, after all. I'm not sure if it's a third midlife crisis or if it's because my wife buys too many mugs, but I've been in lots of situations lately where I've just felt like crying for no good reason. I was in a grocery store a week and a half ago, and the sight of an overly-excited little girl clutching a box of fruit snacks nearly brought me to tears.

So this movie, borderline artificially sweet, got me a little weepy. I fell in love with the flaws of all of these characters and couldn't help but root for all of them. Though this is apparently only loosely based on the real story of Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily, there are enough universal truths within the movie's story to touch on ideas about love, cultural differences, family, relationships, and the importance of humor in dark times.

Ray Romano and Holly Hunter. I can't stop imagining these two getting it on.

This is the second movie I've seen the past year with a bunch of comedians as characters. They're not all central characters in this like they are in Don't Think Twice, but there's a lot of backstage riffing, etc. in this one. I think I've decided that I couldn't spend too much time with comedians.