'Crazy Rich Asians' Makes A Solid Case For A Romcom Renaissance
- Starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Sonoya Mizuno, Chris Pang
- Rated PG-13
- Comedy, Romance
- Run time: 2 hr
- Directed by Jon M. Chu
- In theaters August 15, 2018
There's something comforting about a solid, well done romcom. Especially when there hasn't been a decently budgeted, well marketed, big screen one in quite some time. Crazy Rich Asians provides that cozy warm blanket of a movie and then some. Adapted from the novel of the same name, the film follows the rather predictable plot that one would expect within five minutes of starting the movie. But it works. Crazy Rich Asians isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but why does it need to?
Rachel (Constance Wu) is on the trip of a lifetime - meeting the family of her (unbeknownst to her) insanely wealthy boyfriend, Nick (Henry Golding) in Singapore. There's glitz, there's glamour, there's eye candy in both the scenery and the people among it. Naturally, Rachel sticks out like a sore thumb with her modest Chinese-American background, and some of Nick's family and friends aren't quite okay with who he has chosen to potentially spend his life with. Thankfully, Rachel's friend Peik Lin (Awkwafina) is there to help her along the way with some scene stealing quips, a makeover montage and a shoulder to cry on.
This movie takes the romcom tropes, however, and turns them on their heads with the sheer fact that the entire cast is Asian. And it's beautiful. It illustrates just how effortless it is - and how it should have been all along - to take these standard plot points and just subscribe them to a couple whose demographic we don't see on screen as often as we should. And based on the excited chatter of the group of young guys leaving my showing of the film, seeing an Asian actor in the leading man slot was an absolutely wonderful thing for them to behold.
As far as an adaptation goes, it isn't the most faithful. Thankfully, most of the aspects that are changed do make sense as far as pacing is concerned and doesn't seem to truly mess up (what one can only hope) any future films based off the novel series. As we follow Rachel almost exclusively (with only a few scenes with Nick's mother Eleanor and his cousin Astrid), we don't get all the story lines fleshed out that are available in the book, but there's a few hints that more will come in the future. Personally, it seems easy to love both the book and the movie, even though there is plenty to pick apart if you want to go after the differences between the two. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the glamorous trip to Singapore.