Depiction Of American Dream In the Movie "The Big Sick"

The movie "The Big Sick' explores the issues between race and cultural exchange and highlights the impact these issues have on dating and marriage. This movie I think uses a lot of close ups in important scenes to highlight the importance of characters and their emotions. For example throughout the movie there are a lot of close ups of Kumail. This is very effective as we emphasize with his character more.

At the start of the movie Kumail informs us that in Pakistan (where he comes from) the tradition is that you must marry someone who your family chooses for you.

This in the first 5 minutes of the movie indicates the impact race and cultural differences can have on a relationship. Additionally, at the start of the movie we see that Kumail's is an uber drive, I believe that this is a racial stereotype that is used to promote his character more creating more of a distance between him and Emily.

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It is also interesting when how Emily's parents ask Kumail his thoughts on 9/11 while they're having lunch, highlighting another racial stereotype. The first instance when Kumail tell's his best friend that he is dating a white girl he is told that he has to breakup with her immediately and marry a woman from Pakistan. This is significant as it shows how race can affect relationships. This is emphasised by the use of shots in this scene. For example when they're talking at first the camera shot is quite far away and then when Kumail tells his best friend the shot immediately goes from long to short getting a close up on his face, highlighting how shocked he is.

When Kumail tells his parents about being in love with Emily, his parents cant understand his reasoning. I saw this scene as being significant as they talk about the deeper meaning of religion. His mother and father believe that he is being selfish and following the idea of the American Dream. Chris then comes into the scene and say's that his Mom kicked him out at 16 for doing weed which isn't the same at all compared to Kumail's religion. This expresses how we in the western world don't really understand how much people have to give up in life to do the things they believe in when it comes to the power of religion.