A healing dose of heart and humour

stand-ups CJ (Bo Burnham), Mary (Aidy Bryant) and Chris (Kurt Braunohler).

To pay the rent, Kumail works as a taxi driver and he enjoys precious family time with his father Azmat (Anupam Kher), brother Naveed (Adeel Akhtar) and mother Sharmeen (Zenobia Shroff), who invites a different Pakistani Muslim woman to the dinner table each night as a potential love match.

After one comedy gig, Kumail meets spunky audience member Emily (Kazan) and there is a palpable spark of attraction.

Kumail keeps the relationship secret from his family, then Emily discovers a cigar box filled with photographs of women handpicked by his mother.

“Are you judging Pakistan’s Next Top Model?” she jokes.

When Kumail nervously explains his parents’ presumption of arranged marriage, Emily feels betrayed and tearfully asks, “Can you imagine a world in which we end up together?”. “I don’t know,” he replies. Soon after, Emily contracts a serious infection and doctors induce a medical coma. It’s left to Kumail to contact Emily’s parents, Beth (Holly Hunter) and Terry (Ray Romano), and the trio bond in the hospital waiting room.

The Big Sick wears its easily broken heart on its sleeve and elicits roaring belly laughs from the central duo’s predicament. The script generously distributes the best lines between the cast, including Hunter and Romano as delightfully protective parents with their own relationship woes.

Director Showalter sidesteps genre cliches, allowing the pithy words to speak louder than his actions.