‘What’s Love Got to Do with it?’ (2022) What Happens When You Pick the Wrong Protagonist.
Initially, love really doesn’t seem to have much to do with this rom-com.
Front and centre, it features a cookie-cutter, career-driven female lead in Zoe (Lily James). She’s supposedly an “award-winning documentary maker” (the film likes to remind us a lot) who, in a desperate plea to get work, offers up a story around her Pakistani friend Kazim’s (Shazad Latif) recent decision to enter an assisted marriage. She claims to respect the culture around the process in her pitch at work but compares it to Assisted Dying and Stockholm Syndrome when talking to Kaz. But she’s not just a miserable, judgy career woman, no! She also loves her family! She’s a cool, cooky aunt who makes jokes about Viagra to her nieces and tells them depressing bedtime stories!
Zoe (Lily James) and Kaz (Shazad Latif).
The film explores the subject of assisted marriage, which differs from an arranged marriage in that it offers more freedom to the individuals looking to marry. It attempts to point out the problems of white-western dating and assisted marriages; in theory, this is an interesting idea. However, their biggest mistake when telling this story was choosing the boring white girl, Zoe, as the protagonist. Out of all of the characters that could have been picked to tell an eye-opening story about the beauties and struggles of assisted marriage in a Pakistani family, they decided to make the main character a white woman with the same amount of personality as a chair. I say that as someone who likes Lily James as an actress, so that is no slate on her, but of the writing of the character itself.
Kaz is the romantic counterpart to Zoe, and the two of them have embarrassingly little chemistry. Whenever they interact on screen, there is a palpable awkwardness. The film attempts to convince us that this is the tension of life-long friends too afraid to make the leap into romance. Unfortunately, when watching them banter I couldn’t help but wonder if the filmmakers bothered with a chemistry read. We spend most of the film watching Kaz’s discomfort (or affection? I’m not sure) as Zoe shoves a camera in his face, and we see very little of his character actually revealed to us.
Zoe (Lily James) and Kaz (Shazad Latif).
That being said, I firmly believe that Kaz should have been the protagonist of this film.
Let me explain why.
For starters, the film is about his culture, his family, and his desire for marriage. His family contains a diverse array of interesting characters, including his parents who he doesn’t completely see eye to eye with. His bride-to-be is a secretive character who initially seems timid but reveals herself to have a rebellious streak and is actually in love with another man. Not to mention her brother is a gay man who is aware that he would be stoned for lying with a man. On top of all of that, he has a sister who was estranged from the family after she married a white man that she fell in love with. And, of course, there is the white childhood best friend who keeps following him with a camera and disrespecting his culture whilst supposedly wanting to jump his bones.
Now, be honest with me. What sounds more interesting? A film about everything I’ve just described, or a film about an emotionally constipated white girl making a documentary about her Pakistani friend-crush? We could’ve had a film about a Pakistani man trying to balance his conflicting life and trying to keep everyone happy whilst struggling with his own feelings. We instead got a film where Zoe’s mum (Emma Thompson) makes racist jokes about Pakistanis and the Pakistani father makes sexist jokes about women, whilst Zoe and Kaz awkwardly skulk around together. This film was so limited by the white perspective of its protagonist, and it's such a shame to see interesting storylines go to waste.
I would also like to point out that they attempt to portray Maymouna (Sajal Ali), Kaz’s fiancé, as the “unfavourable” choice of partner, but she is easily the coolest character in the whole film. At first, she is portrayed as very quiet and gentle, only speaking when spoken to and not having much to say. When the parents have left the eventual wedding party, however, she reveals herself to be a fun, outgoing party-animal. She jokes around, drinks alcohol, smokes a little weed, and dances like nobody’s watching. She’s also kind and sensitive, as seen when she congratulates Zoe on her documentary, smiling with tears in her eyes and telling her how great it was! The structure of the story tries to tell us that this is all bad when Kaz and Zoe literally look down on her from a balcony whilst she is having fun, then quietly skulk off to where people are in prayer. Zoe is suddenly moved by religion despite being quite disrespectful up to this point because the plot calls for that “distinction” between her and Maymouna. I want to point out what shouldn’t really need to be said: It is possible for someone to feel connected to their religion and also indulge themselves from time to time. Shocking, I know!
Maymouna (Sajal Ali) and Kaz (Shazad Latif).
Between Zoe as an unlikeable protagonist and Kaz who doesn’t get enough time to shine in his own right, this rom-com fails to deliver on both romance and comedy. It has a heavily pessimistic feel about love that it wasn’t witty enough to get away with. I thought this would be offset by a happy, passionate coming together of the leads that tells us- “look! Love is real!” But the moment they finally came together for that all-anticipated kiss was tepid. The two sat side-by-side like two shy kids at a dance and struggled to even initiate the kiss. I don’t know about you, but that’s not what I want from a rom-com. I wanted to see passion, tenderness, wit, and tension, all the staples of good rom-coms! But, sadly, there was none of the above.