Pardon me if I think the title of this British movie is a terrible idea. The first thing that will occur to many people is that Tina Turner song, and they will thus assume it’s about domestic violence. When they then learn it’s actually about arranged marriages they will probably think, “Bingo!” Actually, domestic violence isn’t brought up at all, and the concept of arranged marriages—at least in the beginning—is presented in a positive light, a gambit that turns out to be disingenuous. Given that this is what mainstream British producers think of as a romantic comedy, potential viewers should know that they have to take the comedy with a pinch of tough romance. The studio behind it all is Working Title, which gave us such classics of the subgenre as Notting Hill and Love Actually. Another tip-off is Emma Thompson as the almost elderly woman who still insists on acting like a teenager, a comic relief character that’s required for these kinds of romantic stories. The fact that she seems to be enjoying herself immensely doesn’t make the spectacle any easier to watch.

The principals are Zoe (Lily James), an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and Kazim (Shazad Latif), a physician, who grew up next door to each other in a leafy suburb of London and shared a treehouse that straddled their properties. They are lifelong besties, and when Kazim informs Zoe that he is entering into an “assisted marriage” (different from an arranged one in that the chosen partners are allowed to get to know each other before the wedding) with someone in Pakistan selected by his tradition-minded parents, Zoe is taken aback, because she is not only a modern Western woman but one who tends to have a negative view of marriage in the first place. She copes with the shock by suggesting she make Kazim’s wedding the subject of her next documentary, and during the recording he can state his case for the superiority of his culture’s take on matrimony as compared to a so-called love marriage. As already pointed out, the first half is mostly a comedy of manners, with funny Muslims trying their best to act more British than the white characters (They LOVE Harry Potter!) and the white characters (cue Thompson, who plays Zoe’s single mom as an ethnically appareled dervish) showing how down they are with the subcontinent. Even Zoe’s occupation and failed love life are plumped for skewering, decisions that would seem to contradict the movie’s progressive spirit since they only go to show how uncomfortable she is in her self-celebrated independence. The other shoe drops in the second half as Zoe confronts the loneliness of a feminist and Kazim realizes that Maymouna (Sajal Ali), the law student from Lahore he’s been set up with, may not be as tolerant of the assisted marriage thing as he is, and for good reason. 

The fact that the director, Shekhar Kapur, and the scenarist, Jemima Khan, have more direct insight into Pakistani culture doesn’t prevent them from giving the audience what they want in terms of sticking it to traditional cultures that look upon love as being overrated. I don’t think the movie needs to idealize arranged marriages, but certain stereotypes can’t help but be reinforced when that other old tradition—the cinematic inevitability of love conquering all—turns out to be the dominant theme. You know where this thing is going because it always ends up there in these kinds of movies. 

In English, Urdu and Arabic. Now playing in Tokyo at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (03-6259-8608), Kino Cinema Shinjuku (03-5315-0978)Yebisu Garden Cinema (0570-783-715).

What’s Love Got to Do With It? home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2022 Studiocanal SAS