BEFORE: Holly Hunter carries over from "Swing Shift", and I'm watching today's film on an Academy screener - it's available on Amazon Prime, and I do have access to my wife's Amazon Prime account, but I haven't been able to get myself in the mode of watching movies on Amazon. For starters, my browser needs a special plug-in and I haven't had any time to devote to figuring out how to install it - but that's really a poor excuse. But because of that, it's an extra step for me to remember to ask my wife to leave her computer on at night and be signed in to her Amazon account. But in the past, when I've done that, I've been burned with the promise of "free" movies on Amazon Prime, only the free ones never seem to be the ones I want to watch, and the ones I do want to watch end up costing me $2.99 or even $5.99, and at prices like that, I might as well watch the same film on iTunes and pay my money to Apple instead of Amazon.
But I should know by now, if a film that's a year or two old hasn't shown up yet on premium cable or on Netflix, it's probably because it's from Amazon Studios, and they want you to watch it on THEIR service, or sign up for their service to watch it. The streaming service wars are definitely here, and I think we've only seen the opening salvos in this war. I'm trying to hold the line, like I won't watch that new "Star Trek" show if it requires me to sign up for a new streaming service. I'm not joining CBS All Access or HBO Go, or any other service I'm eligible for, even if they're free, because I've got plenty to watch on cable, Netflix, iTunes and Academy screeners. Hell, I've got too much to watch as it is, so no more services. With a little effort, maybe by the time Disney On Demand (or whatever they're going to call it) rolls around, I'll have seen everything they're offering and I won't need it.
But hey, it's finally Valentine's Day, and the half-way point of the month of romance, even if my chain is going to be running into March this year. And as I mentioned yesterday, Turner Classic Movies' main theme today is "A Good Cry", and there's at least one film in that line-up ("Dark Victory") that pertains to a person in love with an illness, so finally I feel like maybe we're getting on the same page, TCM and me. Plus I'm watching a film tonight with Zoe Kazan, while TCM is running "Splendor in the Grass", a film that was directed by her grandfather, Elia Kazan.
But it probably won't last - the main "31 Days of Oscar" theme for tomorrow, February 15, is "Kid Stories", followed by the face-off of "Best Survival at Sea" during primetime and "Favorite Non-Speaking Role" during late night:
4:00 am "The Window" (1949)
5:30 am "The Green Years" (1946)
8:00 am "Little Fugitive" (1953)
9:30 am "Little Women" (1933)
11:30 am "The Jungle Book" (1942)
1:30 pm "The Champ" (1931)
3:15 pm "Strike Up the Band" (1940)
5:30 pm "The Bad Seed" (1952)
8:00 pm "Titanic" (1953)
10:00 pm "Lifeboat" (1944)
12:00 am "Johnny Belinda" (1948)
2:00 am "The Miracle Worker" (1962)
I can really only claim two films here, "Lifeboat", which I watched during my Hitchcock phase, and probably "The Miracle Worker", though I'm not 100% sure. Let me give myself the benefit of the doubt on that one. Another 2 out of 12 (pathetic) brings me up to 71 out of 174, down to 40.8%. Musicals are coming up this weekend, though, and I'm going to crush it.
THE PLOT: Pakistan-born comedian Kumail Nanjiani and grad student Emily Gardner fall in love but struggle as their cultures clash. When Emily contracts a mysterious illness, Kumail finds himself forced to face her feisty parents, his family's expectations, and his true feelings.
AFTER: Well, I feel like I can repeat what I was saying yesterday about more complicated romance stories feeling more real, this one is definitely complicated, and it's also based on the real-life romance between Kumail Nanjiani and his girlfriend, Emily. They give her a different last name for the film, but the two co-wrote the screenplay, so let's assume that it comes fairly close to their real-life story.
This touches on so many complex, awkward things - like being a Pakistani-American and clashing with immigrant parents over cultural issues, such as arranged marriages. Dating an American girl and being afraid to tell his parents about her. Breaking up with someone, then still caring about them while they're dealing with an illness. And of course, awkwardly meeting her parents AFTER breaking up with said girlfriend WHILE she's in a medically-induced coma due to her illness AND at the same time, clashing with his parents over their attempts to set him up with an arranged marriage. Whew, that's a lot to take in.
There's no one direct road to happiness, there's really only everybody playing it by ear and doing what feels right, and that means being influenced by parents, the rules of society, how you feel about religion, how you meet people, where you meet people, the conversations you have with those people, it all becomes part of the confusing mix. Then there are bound to be missteps along the way, and times where you have to wonder whether it's better to scrap what you have and start over, or try to fix things and put them back the way they were, if that's even possible. And then there are going to be times where you feel one way about a person, but maybe they don't feel 100% the same way about you. My point is, it's quite often not as easy as the movies make it out to be, unless of course, the movie is a complicated one like this.
I like the focus on a stand-up comedian here, I wish more comedians would focus on telling long-form stories like this that are likely to mean something relevant to other people, instead of just being in silly fluff like "Baywatch" or "CHIPS". OK, maybe they have their place, but those seem like they're shooting for the lowest common denominator. This film, by comparison, has a lot more to say about the immigrant experience, and what it means to be in a relationship. Humor is an important part of a relationship, I believe, and it's nice to see a comedian using humor to get through the awkward parts of dating and family relationships. But hey, I'm just a guy who kept cracking jokes through his divorce settlement, so what do I know?
I also faced a similar dilemma because my parents are hardcore Catholics, and I decided that I didn't want to be, that I'd rather be non-practicing, leaning toward agnostic. It was a tough conversation, but it had to happen at some point. And I caved on my first wedding and had it held in a church to placate them, but the second time I got married in a restaurant and told them that was just the way it was going to be, and I hoped they would join me there. It's an important part of becoming an adult, when you stop doing things the way your parents want them and start doing things for yourself. So yeah, even though I'm not Pakistani or Islamic, this film still struck a chord with me. Kudos.
My only NITPICK POINT was with the scene where the doctor kept asking Kumail's character if he was Emily's husband, in order to get permission to intubate her. It almost felt like he was asking him to lie about her marital status, in order to get this needed permission sooner, and I don't think a doctor would coerce someone to lie, just to get permission for a medical procedure. Surely doctors must understand that not everyone is married, right? I mean, single people deserve medical treatment too, I think. I get that they didn't want to wait for her parents to arrive, that would take too long, but a hospital still has to worry about ethics, and getting someone who wasn't her husband to sign off on a procedure could get the hospital in serious legal trouble. If the procedure was something she definitely needed right away, why couldn't they just DO it? I'm not a legal medical expert, obviously, but something seemed off here - what do hospitals do when there's no official family member to authorize something?
Also starring Kumail Nanjiani (last seen in "Goosebumps"), Zoe Kazan (last seen in "Our Brand Is Crisis"), Ray Romano (last heard in "Ice Age: Collision Course"), Bo Burnham (last seen in "Rough Night"), Zenobia Shroff, Anupam Kher (last seen in "Silver Linings Playbook"), Adeel Akhtar (last seen in "Pan"), Aidy Bryant, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Kurt Braunohler, Shenaz Treasury, David Alan Grier (last seen in "Return to Me"), Ed Herbstman, Jeremy Shamos (last seen in "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them"), Vella Lovell, Linda Emond (last seen in "The Family Fang"), Jeff Blumenkrantz
RATING: 7 out of 10 hospital visitor passes
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