What’s Love Got to Do with It?, 2023.
Directed by Shekhar Kapur.
Starring Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Sajal Ali, Oliver Chris, Asim Chaudhry, Jeff Mirza, Alice Orr-Ewing, Rahat Fateh, Ali Khan, Peter Sandys-Clarke, Ben Ashenden, Alexander Owen, Pakiza Baig, Grace Askew, Lolly Askew, Luke McQueen, Dan Jarratt-Cook, and Shaheen Khan.
SYNOPSIS:
In London, an award-winning filmmaker documents her best friend’s journey into an assisted marriage in line with his family’s Pakistani heritage. In the process, she challenges her own attitude toward relationships.
Thankfully, someone still knows how to take the most basic ingredients of a romantic comedy and make it charming, weaving in several thoughtful conversations. That director is Shekhar Kapur (using a script from Jemima Khan), who does not have Tina Turner in mind with the awkwardly titled What’s Love Got to Do with It?, but rather a compare and contrast between online dating and Pakistani arranged/assisted marriage through the lens of different generations, cultures, and sensibilities within the UK.
In a creative choice that easily could have backfired, the narrative is split half-and-half, also centered on a white fictional award-winning documentary filmmaker named Zoe Stevenson (Lily James), who chooses her next project to be a look at her childhood next-door neighbor and best friend Kazim’s (Shazad Latif) headfirst plunge into dates arranged by his parents and matchmaking, which quickly leads into a marital commitment to a stranger he has only met through online text and video chat, Sajal Ali’s Maymouna.
Footage depicting Kazim’s relatives and their positive experiences with arranged marriages go into the documentary, but there’s also no disputing that, despite Kazim insisting that he and Maymouna have much in common (even with a roughly 10-year age gap) and that these relationships take time to click fully, they are two people that are not meant to and up together. Maymouna is not only a more modern woman with the ambition to become a human rights lawyer but is still in love with someone else she can no longer be with. She tells Kazim everything is fine, but it’s written all over her eyes that she doesn’t want any of this. As sweet as Kazim is, it’s also apparent that he lies to himself about many things.
Meanwhile, Zoe’s modern approach to dating consistently yields new disasters, practically picking up red flags off the ground and placing them in her pocket, let alone ignoring them. When babysitting for one of her friends, she reads Disney fables as bedtime stories, serving as analogies to her disastrous love life, that come across as somewhat clunky (and at one point blatantly ignores the whole Stockholm syndrome aspect surrounding Beauty and the Beast, although maybe that’s the point given the terrible romantic choices her character makes). She regularly ends up in one-night stands with guys that either don’t care about her or are cheating on someone else to have fun with her, eventually reaching a breaking point where she takes up her overwhelming mom’s (Emma Thompson) advice to date the kind veterinarian (Oliver Chris).
Similarities between online dating apps and a Western mother’s insistence on getting together with someone polite and stable to the traditions of Kazim’s family are crystal clear. The script is assuredly not subtle, and most viewers will have no doubts where this is all going, but there’s also a gentle, heartwarming touch that cares about the complexities of these families and character dynamics, refusing to vilify one set of beliefs outright. And the filmmakers make sure not to let the documentary angle go to waste, showing that for documentaries themselves to be informative and useful, there needs to be openness and honesty toward addressing things and situations one might feel uncomfortable talking about (without getting too much into it, Kazim’s sister was banished from the family by his grandma from marrying out of the religion).
At times, it feels like What’s Love Got to Do with It? is taking an unnecessarily long time to reach its inevitable conclusion, but as individual scenes play out, there’s a remarkable authenticity and delicate approach to these thorny situations that make the near two-hour running time worth it. This is formulaic, but with a refreshing cultural lens and several touching moments regarding family just as much as relationships. Even when it’s dipping slightly too far into a white perspective for this story, the results are satisfying and moving with depth, sincerity, and respect for everyone involved.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
