The Big Sick (2017)

Kumail Nanjiani is a stand up comedian who lives in Chicago. One night he gets heckled by Emily Gardener, a woman in the audience. They start a casual relationship. Everything is going well until she finds out that his parents wouldn't approve of him dating a non-Pakistani woman. They break up. She gets sick and winds up in the hospital. She is put into a medically induced coma for her own safety. He calls her parents, whom he has never met before and who live in North Carolina.

At first her parents want him to leave as soon as they show up at the hospital. He insists on sticking around and eventually they start bonding. Kumail's parents (throughout the movie) try to set him up with Pakistani women. He doesn't know how to tell his parents that he has to live his life the way he wants to live it. Emily recovers and comes out of the coma. She is confused when Kumail comes to see her in the hospital. Her parents tell her about all he did for her but she still isn't ready to get back together with him.

Kumail plays himself it this movie but the part of Emily is played by Zoe Kazan. Emily's last name in the movie is changed from Gordon to Gardener. That seems weird. There must be a story there.

This is a mostly true story, some of the facts have been altered slightly. I heard the story before it was made into a movie, before I even knew that there was going to be a movie. I think it was it 2011 or 2012 that I first heard about it on the You Made it Weird podcast. I knew the chain of events but I didn't expect the movie to be as emotionally moving as it was. I experienced a mixture of laughter and tears as I watched The Big Sick, sometimes both as the same time. It is very effectively put together. All the performances were good to great.

I may be a bit biased. I like both main characters. I have heard them on on podcasts on numerous occasions, together and individually. I used to listen to their podcast (The Indoor Kids) when it was still on. It was about video games. I don't play video games but I still enjoyed their banter and listening to them interact with others.

This movie isn't perfect but I loved it. There's nothing quite like a movie that moves you it multiple ways. I will have to watch it again someday and see how it hits me then.