Hello all, welcome to another week on 'A Series of Unfortunate
Irritations' I hope you've had a great weekend.
Today is going to be a mix
between a review of my weekend and a review of the film; The Big Sick.
To start, I wanted to clarify
the rationale behind the term Bunderson. Bunderson is a mix of mine and my best
friend, Jade's surnames so whenever we meet, we say it's Bunderson time! Ok
fine, it's cheesy but neither of us care. We're tragic and that's how we like
it. Plus, I like the name combination thing; I do it from me and Matthew and I
think it works as a shorthand for a relationship that almost transcends that of a regular relationship or friendship.
We were going to see Dirty Dancing in an outside cinema setting
near Canada Water in London but as the day came, it became more apparent that the
weather wasn’t going to let us follow through with this plan. This is typical
of a Bunderson plan; we plan with the greatest of intent but then something
always changes (even our own minds sometimes) then we embark on a rollercoaster
of ideas and circumstances which, once you look back at the original plan, do not match at all but in fact, it's this spontaneity that makes the day more fun if anything.
I met her at Chesham at the house she shares with friends and made
plans to still go to the outdoor cinema. We were determined to stick to our
plan (for once). We went out with Jade’s friend for lunch and had tapas in
Chesham and before we knew it, we planned to stay with him for most of the day
and then get dropped off at Clapham station ready for our open air cinematic experience
later in the evening. This sounded like a good plan as I got to catch up with
Jade and her friend Keye on a magical mystery tour as Keye run errands ahead of
his wedding later this week. We first stopped off at Hemel Hempstead for a
quick visit to the town centre and then we raced back to Chesham to pick up
more supplies (and his husky, Marley) and then headed down the m25 to Clapham. It was on
this stretch that our final evening plans were confirmed by Mother Nature
herself. It utterly pissed it down (pardon my French) meaning that no one,
least of all us, was going to willingly sit in an open field getting soaked
through. However, no one puts Bunderson in a corner, and we immediately started
making alternate plans. We circled round many ideas including going to
Southbank and seeing the ‘Underbelly’ festival comedy show, ‘Brief’s’, going to
play indoor mini golf, seeing ‘Wicked’ or going to the cinema to see ‘Girls
Night’.
As we got to Clapham, said goodbye to Keye and waited for the next
train into London, we decided to go and see ‘Wicked’. This was until we looked
at the prices online- over £60 per ticket! We were on a budget so immediately got onto plan B; indoor crazy golf. We searched the ‘Junkyard’
website but our hopes were crushed again as there were no more slots left to
book! With the ‘Brief’s show being a bit beyond the budget for us also, we were
left with going to see ‘Girls Night’ at the cinema. We’d watched the trailer in the car on
the way to Clapham and already decided this was right up our street so while
the cinema was our final option, we didn’t feel completely defeated.
We decided to go to the Vue cinema in Harrow as this meant
we had more time to get snacks before the film; after all, you can’t watch a
film without snacks, it’s just not the done thing! We raided Tesco and headed
straight to Vue to book our tickets. We got to Vue with minutes to spare but as
we knew adverts would take another half hour, we weren’t in too much of a
panic. Our excitement was building as we tapped away at the self-service ticket
booth, but the excitement soon shot out of us when we came to choosing our
seats. Quite simply, there were none. None left!! "How could this be? Why?!" we
both whined as we realised that even our final plan C would not come to
fruition. As many people do when something doesn’t work, you keep trying it,
getting more and more exasperated with every failed attempt. We didn't want to believe that the film we’d geared ourselves up to see, was fully
booked- even the next showing was booked. Even for a Bunderson adventure, this
was unusual.
After many frustrated attempts and even asking a man at the kiosk,
we resigned ourselves to the fact we’d have to either chose another film or
give up our cinema hopes for the evening. That’s when we came across ‘The Big
Sick’. I’d not heard much about it and neither had Jade but after watching the
trailer, we decided to take a punt and see what this film had in store for us.
Jade bought the tickets (thankyou!) and we legged it to screen 5 as we were already
late! We made it just as the trailers were ending but it meant we were stumbling
about awkwardly in the dark using my phone as a torch to find our seats, trying
not to stack it on the stairs. We were those
people; the one’s that you tut at as they walk in late fumbling about and
loudly whispering to each other that they’d forgot their seat number and then
finally sitting down just as the opening credits come on.
I went in with an open mind and was pleasantly surprised....
The film
is a true story about the Pakanstani comedian Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V
Gordon and their unconventional but touching relationship which battles the taboo of mixed
race relationships in America. Kumail is somewhat of a ‘lapsed Muslim’ looking
to carve his life out the way he wants, not the one arranged for him by the
strict confines of his religion. The film is a tale of real life grit mixed with
the pleasant sweetness and humour of a classic rom-com. It’s sweet to watch
these two on screen whose chemistry is heartwarming and real. Kumail is an Uber
driver with comedic ambitions who is constantly fighting a battle between his
head and his heart with some hilarious results namely his regular family meals where he pretends to pray while instead playing video games, and his mum sets up various potential Muslim suiters to ‘just pop in’ and join the family for dinner. Each of the women comes
prepared with a photo for Kumail and each photo he duly discards in a box when he returns home.
The film tells the tale of this repetition and the story of a man longing for
change, longing for his dreams of career and religious freedom to be realised.
This chain of repetition is broken suddenly by Emily who offers him rest bite
from the weight of the expectations put on him by his
mother. He sees her as a breath of fresh air and so their relationship blossoms
into something that neither of them expect. Everything is going well until Emily finds
Kumail’s box of brides and confronts Kumail with the realisation that their
relationship may never work due to their racial and cultural differences.
Kumail is then catapulted back into life adding to his box of brides and hiding
his feelings from his proud family.
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| credit: Variety |
This all changes however when Emily is struck down with ‘the big sick’
putting her in a coma leaving her family and Kumail in the waiting room
exchanging awkward pleasantries. Soon, it becomes apparent that they would be
stuck together for a much longer time and what unfolds from here is a heart-warming
story of Kumail and Emily’s parents bonding with Kumail discovering in Emily’s
parents that not every relationship is perfect and that he has more in common
with them than he imagined. He realises that lying about his feelings would only cause him more pain.
This film deals with its fair share of complex emotional and
cultural ethical issues and it approaches them with a great sense of humour. Satire and sensitivity meet in perfect harmony here to create a film that is
truly heart-warming and for me, it was really a pleasant surprise and a film
that I was so glad I saw, even if it was a last minute decision.
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