Based loosely on the events of the early comedian Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon's relationship, The Big Sick is a story of clashing cultures and dealing with life's hardships.
With Kumail migrating from Pakistan at 18 with his family, he's very much tied to their culture's traditions. He's to marry a Pakistani woman through an arranged marriage, and has no choice in the matter. Either he agrees, or he's removed from the family. Kumail understands the importance of the tradition and his culture, but it simply doesn't appeal to him. He wants to live by his own decisions.
Focusing on stand-up comedy, he eventually meets Emily after a performance, the two connect immediately and begin to start hanging out, despite Emily's lack of interest in starting a relationship due to her current lifestyle. During this time, Kumail's parents are still bringing over Pakistani women to their house during dinners in an attempt to hook Kumail up with one of them. This results in Kumail keeping a box full of their pictures for the inevitable day that he has to give in to the ancient tradition and pick a woman to marry in order to keep his family.
The film isn't entirely about the two getting together, though. It's more about Kumail's struggle to keep himself together after Emily falls sick and is put into a medically induced coma, of which she may never recover from unless the doctors find out what's wrong with her. Kumail realises that he wants to be with Emily, no matter the cost, and stays by her during the coma, getting to know her parents that don't seem too fond of him, given Emily's discovery of Kumail's picture box a few weeks prior to her illness.
Despite the arranged marriage being a strong point of the film, it ensures Kumail's family isn't seen as a bad group of people, they're caring and thoughtful, just bound by a heavy culture that they themselves had to go through. The film isn't out to display the culture or its people in a negative light, but to show the struggles of migrants that want to start over and make their own decisions; to encourage free thought and display the importance of family.
With its serious themes, The Big Sick never fails to remind us that it is in fact a comedy, most of which comes from Kumail himself and his strange encounters with Emily's family during her coma. He's thrown into an environment where he must act like he's with Emily despite being an average comedian with no true career path or strong grasp on life. There's a lot of self-deprecating humour that works well, showing Kumail's rather dysfunctional lifestyle.
Overall, The Big Sick is wholesome. It's funny, meaningful, ripe with culture and love. It has its serious moments but everything works out well in the end; and no that's not a spoiler, given the two are happily married now and wrote the screenplay together.
