The Big Sick

Michael Showalter directs a script Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani wrote about themselves over roughly 3 years. Judd Apatow met Nanjiani at a podcast recording in 2012 and came aboard as producer; the budget was 5 million dollars. In life Gordon was put into a medically induced coma and, after 8 days of tests, diagnosed with adult onset Still’s disease. On screen she is renamed Emily Gardner and played by Zoe Kazan. Holly Hunter, who plays the mother, never contacted the real Gordon, wanting her own freedom with the part. The structure follows. The tone turns before the halfway mark and the female lead lies unconscious through a long stretch; Kumail and her parents take the film over, and the romantic comedy becomes a family drama in a hospital room. After Sundance, Amazon paid 12 million dollars for it and it went on to 56 million worldwide. The screenplay was nominated for the original screenplay Oscar, which Get Out won; Gordon and Nanjiani won best first screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. A good fit if you accept that the middle belongs to Kumail and Emily’s parents rather than the couple. Not for viewers who want the two leads on screen together, or who avoid intensive care and the wait for a diagnosis.