On its surface, Crazy Rich Asians presents itself as nothing more than your standard “by the book” rom-com. And while it does follow many of the tried-and-true tropes of the rom-com, it comes off as much more than that. The fact that it’s the first major Hollywood release with an all Asian cast since 1993’s Joy Luck Club puts it in rare territory. And whether fair or not, it takes on a lot of responsibility and pressure to deliver. And it mostly does.
The general plot is nothing special. Constance Wu plays Rachel Chu, who is traveling with boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding) to Singapore for Nick’s best friend’s wedding. Rachel will be meeting Nick’s family for the first time. She soon discovers that the Young family is one of the wealthiest families in Singapore. Predictably, Nick’s mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) doesn’t approve of Nick and Rachel’s relationship. Being set with the backdrop of Chinese culture provides a unique spin on the typical rom-com.
By having such a template story line, the other aspects of the film become just that much more important to set it apart and boost its overall quality. The acting is excellent, up and down the line. Wu and Golding are great as the two leads. Yeoh’s performance as domineering Eleanor might be the best in the movie. The supporting characters all bring it as well.
Ken Jeong is in fine form as you would expect. Though I thought he was slightly underused. His character is not one you would want to be in a leading role; he would be too ridiculous and would get old fast. But they could have gotten another couple scenes out of him for sure. Nico Santos is a delight as Oliver, Nick’s second cousin. Santos, incidentally, is dating Zeke Smith, one of my favorite Survivor players.
Awkwafina was, thankfully, mostly fine. I could not stand her character in Ocean’s 8 and the previews and trailers for Crazy Rich Asians seemed to depict her character here as more of the same. Luckily that wasn’t quite the case. While she was still hit-or-miss throughout the movie, she did provide some of the funnier moments. My only real issue with the cast involves an actor who is not in the movie: Randall Park, Wu’s co-star in ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat. Surely some kind of role, even something small for one or two scenes, could have been found for someone as funny as Park. And because I can’t mention Randall Park and not talk about it, he is what is my favorite cold open from The Office.
He’s also great as one of the leads in Fresh Off the Boat and more recently had a small, but still hilarious, role in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Park would have been a perfect fit for this movie, and I am very curious to know if he was ever considered for a part.
While the acting was great, Crazy Rich Asians fell victim to the same problem that plagued Ocean’s 8 (okay, one of the problems that plagued Ocean’s 8), though to a lesser degree. And that would be the script. It’s not a terrible script, but it’s not great either. And when you have actors and actresses who are on point and killing it, script problems become more obvious. Specifically some of the dialogue came off as clunky and awkward and took me out of the movie.
If these were the only real problems with the movie, I would have it rated solidly in the mid-80s. Unfortunately that is not the case. There are three main issues I have, though one is a single, specific scene that just felt unnecessary.
The scene in question is a montage of Rachel trying on a series of dresses. It plays for comedic effect and while it does provide a few small laughs, it was not funny enough to justify being in the movie. The run time of just over two hours is about the limit for this kind of movie. When you’re right up against it, you have to make sure each scene, particularly those that are included solely for comedy sake, are worth being included. And while we’re at it, let’s revisit a classic “finding an outfit” montage, courtesy of Dumb & Dumber.
The second biggest problem I have is the B plot about Astrid, one of Nick’s cousins. She is having trouble with her marriage and the movie cuts to that every so often. Now if, like me, you know the plots of the book and its sequels*, you know Astrid takes on a larger role in the second book in the series, China Rich Girlfriend. And with a sequel being a possibility, the movie had to do something to at least partially set that up.
*meaning I read the Wikipedia entries*
Don’t get me wrong, I like Astrid as a character and Gemma Chan did a fine job portraying her. The movie simply didn’t do enough to give the audience any real attachment to the character. As a result, I didn’t care all that much about what was happening in her story line. Even further than that, it didn’t feel like it was even from the same movie. It seemed more like those scenes were filmed completely separate and were then spliced in when they needed a quick break from the main plot.
My biggest complaint is that the movie can’t quite decide what type of movie it wants to be. It’s advertised and is being discussed as a rom-com, but it doesn’t fully commit to that. It certainly has the feel of a rom-com, but the script and plot don’t allow for the movie to fully go there. But on the flip side, it also doesn’t fully commit to being a romantic drama. It gets caught in the middle of the two. Any good rom-com is going to have its dramatic moments, which often can arise naturally simply because of the plot. And any drama, romantic or otherwise, can easily have comedic moments included here and there.
This movie could have been great, and that’s why I’m more disappointed in the final product that I otherwise might have been. If everything, from the script to the acting to the jokes and everything in between, had been bad, that’s one thing. But when you can see the potential for a better movie, you can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed.
Even with those issues, the bottom line is that Crazy Rich Asians is an enjoyable movie. I don’t know that it’s worth paying premium pricing for at the theater. But if you can catch a matinée, or a $5 Ticket Tuesday, absolutely go for it. Or wait and rent/stream it once it’s available on VOD. The lovely cast and the breathtaking visuals make it one worth seeing.
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