Everything about Kumail Nanjiani's excellent 'The Big Sick' makes us cry
Welcome to our weekly series "Cry of the Week," in which we highlight whatever moment made us ugly cry on our couches the most in the past seven days.
Yes, The Big Sick is a comedy, but it's a comedy that offers up about a million reasons to cry.
Maybe you'll tear up at the tender romance between the central couple, or at the poignant relationships between its parents and children. Perhaps you'll feel a lump in your throat over its warm-hearted representation of a Pakistani immigrant family, or an aching twinge of recognition at Kumail's struggles to make his name in the Chicago comedy scene.
You might also find yourself weeping with laughter over Kumail Nanjiani's crisp jokes and perfectly dry delivery. (That 9/11 joke seems destined to be an instant classic.) And of course, there's always the "big sick" – adult-onset Still's disease, which puts Emily in a coma just as her relationship with Kumail seems to be over for good.
Still looking for more reasons to sob?
The Big Sick isn't just a poignant love story – it's a true poignant love story, based on the real-life relationship between Nanjiani and his now-wife, Emily V. Gordon. (Uh, spoilers, we guess, but it doesn't really seem like that much of a shocker considering Nanjiani and the real-life Gordon wrote The Big Sick together.)
And while the promise of all this tearjerking – hilarity-induced and otherwise – might sound kind of daunting, the magic of The Big Sick is that it all goes down easy. Nanjiani is effortlessly charming in romantic leading man mode, and Ray Romano and Holly Hunter absolutely kill it as the fictional Emily's protective parents.
In fact, you probably won't even notice it's making you cry until you start wondering why your cheeks are wet. But that's why we're warning you now. Bring tissues – this one's a heartbreaker of a gut-buster.
The Big Sick is in theaters now.
