Crazy in love
Unabashedly retro rom-com has a ’90s vibe
There’s been much talk about how Crazy Rich Asians — the title is meant to suggest both Asians who are crazy-rich and rich Asians who are crazy — marks a bold new step in filmmaking diversity. It does: The cast is all Asian or Asian-american, as is director Jon M. Chu, one of the two screenwriters, at least three of the 11 producers, and novelist Kevin Kwan, who provided the source material (and shares an executive producer credit).
But in just about every other way, the film is a step backward, though not in a bad way. Let’s just say that the opening scene takes place in 1995, and the rest of the film, while set in the present, might as well occupy the decade that gave us Sleepless in Seattle, Notting Hill and Jerry Maguire. It’s an unabashedly retro romcom, and will doubtless live in perpetuity on what used to be called cable, then VHS rentals and now streaming.
The setup is simple, provided you park your critical skills at the concession counter. Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) has been dating hunky Nick Young (Henry Golding) for about a year without realizing that he is the scion of a wealthy Singapore family. But when he invites her to the wedding of his best friend back home, she discovers his filthyrich secret.
Rachel isn’t fazed by the news. “I think it’s kind of weird that I had no idea,” she notes mildly.
Rachel and Nick are clearly very much in love, but Nick’s imperious mother (the incomparable Michelle Yeoh) thinks this Chinese-american nobody is nowhere good enough for her son. Thus must Rachel ingratiate herself with her wealthy may be future-in-laws, while to her own self being true.
She’s helped in this by her former roommate Peik Lin (rapper Awkwafina, last seen in Ocean’s 8), whose own family’s modest fortune seems to have been built on comic relief.
With a few deft twists — most of the soundtrack’s jazz standards and pop songs, including Yellow, Money (That’s What I Want) and Material Girl and sung in Chinese — Crazy Rich Asians sticks close to the ’90s rom-com playbook. So there’s a touristy montage of Singapore, a shopping spree, a gay friend, a makeover scene and a couple of banquets.
You can be forgiven for losing track of the sprawling cast, although its standouts include Rachel’s single mom (Kheng Hua Tan), who proves that motherhood at its best is a kind of sisterhood too. There’s also Fiona Xie, whom I point out only because it’s almost unbelievable that her character’s name, Kitty Pong, never appeared in a James Bond movie.
But the star-crossed lovers are the main attraction here.
Wu, who gained notice for her work in TV’S Fresh Off the Boat (another ’90s-vibe vehicle), is appealing as the level-headed Rachel. And Golding, a Britishmalaysian model and TV host, makes his acting debut here; he also appears in the upcoming thriller A Simple Favor. The script doesn’t give him much to do beyond look pretty, which he does perfectly. He might be a great actor, but I didn’t get the chance to find out.
There’s also a tear-jerking rendition of Can’t Help Falling in Love, performed by Kina Grannis. It takes place during Nick’s best friend’s wedding, though truth be told there’s enough romance in this movie to power four weddings. And if you can’t appreciate that — well, it’s your funeral.