It’s been more than three decades since When Harry Met Sally, and yet rom coms about the complexity of dating seemingly can’t avoid referencing it. Last year’s 7 Days made a feature of it, while new release What’s Love Got To Do With It pokes at the classic in an almost embarrassed fashion. Yet that’s not where the similarities end, as Shekhar Kapur’s satire on relationships serves as a British counterpart to Roshan Sethi’s very American movie, in that both films take a somewhat lighthearted and culturally specific look at arranged marriage in the modern west.
7 Days was Sethi’s tale of a couple shoved together by their parents and the COVID lockdown and it approached the tradition from the viewpoint of young Asian Americans who are navigating a cultural artifact that they see as behind them. However, Shekhar Kapur’s social comedy exists in a particularly integrated version of London, a comfortably middle class one where doctor Kaz (Latif) and documentary filmmaker Zoe (James) grew up together, and now she’s following him around as he goes through the search of a bride. Although, as he notes, it’s not an arranged marriage any more – the term is assisted. So she sets off with him to make her new documentary, and explore cultural differences: After all, as Kaz says in one of the few pointed exchanges, she’s British, whereas he will always be British-born.
Of course, the inevitable suggestion is that they’ll end up together, but there’s very little in the narrative to imply that. Indeed, there’s a surprising lack of tension or friction between them, and little to suggest friendship beyond proximity. Even if the resolution may be a little more up-in-the-air than the traditional British rom com format would require, it’s often still oddly predictable, down to the seemingly mandatory appearance of Emma Thompson as Zoe’s drunken and insensitive if well-meaning mother. When the humor comes, it’s often awkwardly, as summed up by Chaudhry as Mo the matchmaker, a one-scene comedy character in the mold of Martin Short’s outrageous turn as wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer in Father of the Bride but much more tempered and restrained. It’s as if Kapur is unsure exactly how to balance the observational elements of the story with the humor, and
The script is at its smartest when it tackles British and British-born misapprehensions about Pakistan, with Kaz’s family revealed as more staid and traditional than that of his bride-to-be, Maymouna (Ali). Those aspects can be credited to the script by Jemima Khan, nee Goldsmith, the former wife of cricketer and Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, and her own navigation of her husband’s cultural norms. As a documentary producer herself, it’s almost impossible not to see Zoe as her avatar, making the repeated flashbacks to Zoe’s love life recounted as fairy tales (with her as the princess, of course) seem even more forced.
But then, so much of What’s Love Got To Do With It seems forced, or oddly cursory. Take, for example, the brief discussion about whether, as a white woman, a story of assisted marriage is truly Zoe’s to tell: Kahn opens the door to a meaningful discussion about what cultural ownership really means in an integrated society, but does little more than peak around the frame. Between the half-formed romance, the uneven comedy, and the observations that stop just short of real insight, it’s a wedding invite that’s easy to skip.
This article appears in May 5 • 2023.
