Engaging romantic comedy (promising Pakistani-American comedian hides a very MidWestern girlfriend from his ultra-traditional parents) which morphs into a medical drama (with warm, fuzzy edges) when a tough to diagnose/life-threatening infection places the undeclared girlfriend in a medically-induced coma. Lots of laughs, confessional tears, many gaffes from (future) in-laws . . . the works. With Kumail Nanjiani, playing a rather refined version of himself, as the faint-hearted boyfriend who learns to speak up; standard-issue perfs from his stern parents; and more originally drawn roles for an excellent Ray Romano & Holly Hunter as the girl’s parents. Yet the film doesn’t land with the emotional charge it should have. Instead, ducking in & out of plot beats, as if constantly jostled by Post-It notes left on script pages by exec producer Judd Apatow, determined to fill his usual boy-grows-up–by-finding-partner playbook. It doesn’t spoil the film, but it does make it feel like secondhand goods. So too remarkably awful direction (at least on the technical side) by Michael Showalter, with some of the cruddiest looking cinematography & destructive editing choices seen in a commercial Hollywood film in decades.
SCREWY THOUGH OF THE DAY: Hard to believe the basic ABIE’S IRISH ROSE premise (5-yrs on B’way in the ‘20s) still pays off. Just add baby or health crisis & watch feuding ethnic clans come together.
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