What's Love Got To Do With It?

One of the biggest hurdles romcoms need to clear is that we basically know the ending before the movie begins. Our lead and their love interest are probably going to end up together. It’s why we’re here: to see a love story play out before our eyes, as they overcome obstacles to recognize and realize their feelings for each other, and maybe even live happily ever after. Even when it’s a love triangle, most very clearly position one person as the clear choice for the protagonist. So a romcom more than some genres relies heavily on likable characters, and spending its middle chunk building them and their rapport such that you actually buy them falling in love. Especially when it’s going to lead to a dramatic action which finally brings them together: sprinting down a tarmac, objecting during a wedding, or surprising them with a personalized song over the plane’s intercom. There’s not much tension in those scenes, but we’ve still got to feel like there’s actual stakes, and be rooting for the protagonist to succeed.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? starts with an interesting question: what does an arranged marriage look like in modern-day London, and why would someone choose it? Zoe (Lily James) sets out to create a documentary on this very question when her neighbor and best friend since childhood Kazim (Shazad Latif) elects for what he calls an “assisted marriage”. She follows as his parents help him vet brides to be, find a suitable wife, and proceed to get married. All the while, her insistence that love is important seems more personal than she’s willing to let on.

I do really like this premise. A look at how a traditional practice is adapted to fit within another time and another society is a valuable window into cultural adaptation. Even more so when it’s a practice that’s so opposite of what that culture holds dear. It also reminds us that marrying for love is a very recent practice, one which has only risen in popularity in the past hundred years or so (at least in the US).

Zoe plays the role of the (western) audience, incredulously asking Kaz all sorts of questions, from logistics to his personal reasons for wanting this. But that’s where the troubles with this movie begin. Despite being an award winning documentarian, she seems less interested in discovering this world and understanding it than emphasizing that her own value system is correct. She’s not so much asking questions and challenging Kaz as she is hurling accusations at him for doing something so “backwards”. And Kaz very calmly and with infinite patience tells her how she’s wrong, and how love-based marriages aren’t so great after all. That is, neither of them is actually making good arguments either to each other or the audience. Kaz is setup to be correct, even as his rationale for why he doesn’t need love is rooted in trite stats like the divorce rate. His whole point appears to be that love isn’t so great because sometimes it doesn’t work out? Zoe and Kaz aren’t having a conversation about different philosophies, they’re talking at each other about how their way is clearly best, and the movie wants us to side with Kaz.

Zoe’s superficial reaction can at least in part be chalked up to her feelings for Kaz, consciously or not. Right after learning of his decision, Zoe’s pitch for her next documentary is rejected. And in her scramble to pick a new topic, she quickly offers up her friend’s journey, which will allow them to spend a bunch of time together. Combined with a bunch of longing looks and body language, and it’s clear there are things she’s left unsaid. So of course she’s going to try to convince him he’s being silly and antiquated, leaving him in the role of “educating” this sputtering white person.

Part of what makes it so frustrating is the lack of signs that Kaz feels anything for her. We do get some brief moments late in the film, but as a result we miss out on the build that’s supposed to make us feel like these two are perfect for each other. Yes, we get a few scenes showing how comfortable they are together, which contrasts Kaz’s interactions with his family and bride to be. But of course they are: they’ve known each other their entire lives. It’s hardly enough for romance. When we finally get an indication that he might, it feels forced and lacks any weight. Maybe it would have hit harder if he demonstrated any sort of doubt as the courtship piece got under way. But he always seemed so confident this was the right choice for him.

The practice of assisted marriages as depicted seems to basically be an accelerated courtship. Kaz’s parents show him pictures of women, maybe set up some meetings, and check compatibility. It’s not clear what “compatible” means in this context; we see him chat with a woman named Maymouna (Sajal Ali) over Skype, there’s no real communication taking place, he doesn’t seem impressed, and yet she ends up being his bride. If his parents just need to vet her, I’m not sure why he was involved? Additionally, they hire some agency to help narrow the pool of women, taking into account Kaz’s preferences. Although they don’t really seem to do anything? Except to hold a speed dating type event.

Part of what makes this all so confusing is that the way the system works seems to contradict what we’re being told are the benefits of an arranged marriage. If the idea is your parents know you best and thus can pick someone from the community who would be a good match, isn’t that defeated by picking someone from a family who they also don’t know? Even more, throughout the film, we’re seeing interviews Zoe is taping with couples who came together through an arranged marriage. And none of their experience seems to bear too heavily on what’s happening in the film, because they all relay it as the older style, where they hadn’t even met until their wedding day. Sure, there is the throughline that they started out as strangers and fell in love through working on their marriages. But even that doesn’t quite apply here, since Kaz says he and Maymouna have been Face Timing and texting a ton.

In this light, then, the ending is of a piece. Without spoiling anything, it’s exactly what you expect it to be, which flies directly in the face of the ideas it’s been espousing for the previous 90 minutes. Some events transpire, one thing leads to another, and in the end, love wins the day. Which reduces the idea of assisted marriage to an obstacle, even when it all works out. It takes a practice which is foreign to much of the audience, tells you why it’s better than love for almost the whole runtime, then says “Forget about that, it’s all about love anyways”.

If the romance side and the conversation it’s trying to have just don’t work, what about the comedy?

It’s full of some incredibly cheap and boring and obvious jokes. Even when the setup is clearly there, the execution fails to land. Maybe that’s a cultural thing, and if you’re more familiar with Pakistani or British communities or their intersection, they work. But much of it was just awkward and forced. There were some tired old jokes at the expense of inclusivity and diversity initiatives, which was odd. Although maybe that makes more sense given Zoe’s mother, Cath (Emma Thompson). She stereotypes and fetishizes the entire Khan family, even shoehorning herself into their traditions. She’s the cringey old white lady who thinks she’s an honorary Pakistani, and yet knows little of what she’s talking about. This type of character can be fine, but you’ve got to address it somehow, and they just…don’t. So all of her attempts at humor are painful instead of funny.

At least once it started doing the type of big choreographed dance that we associate with Bollywood films, it mostly stuck with it, unlike some recent British movies. Looking at you, Polite Society.