Logan Sork Film Reviews
Crazy Rich Asians
Diversity and representation has been one of Hollywood’s biggest problems for decades. Roles for minorities have generally been regulated to supporting or minor roles. Thankfully though, Hollywood has realized this problem and has produced many recent films that are major milestones in terms of representation in film. Crazy Rich Asians is one of those milestones, as it is the first major Hollywood film to have an all Asian cast in a number of years. This is an important film for representation in Hollywood and for Asian communities in particular. As a milestone towards representation, this film is extremely important, as a film however it is unfortunately extremely average. Apart from a great cast and gorgeous set pieces, this film is romantic comedy 101. This may suit well for some, but it’s a shame that the film itself isn’t as groundbreaking as the ideas it carries.
Crazy Rich Asians is directed by John M. Chu and stars Constance Wu as Rachel Chu, a Chinese American economics professor who is in a happy relationship with her boyfriend, Nick Young, played by Henry Golding. Nick tells Rachel what he wants to take her to Singapore for a family wedding, so he could introduce her to his family. Upon arrival, Rachel learns that Nicks family is extremely wealthy and influential in the eastern world. As Rachel is introduced to the family, she begins to realize that she is not welcome as she is seen as an outsider to the community, particularly in the scornful view of Nicks mother, played by Michelle Yeoh. Rachel must learn to navigate the high society family before it becomes too much and fractures the stable relationship they have built.
The cast in this film is absolutely brilliant. Everyone gives a down to earth performance that helps ground the characters in reality, even when the situations begin to become more absurd. The real standouts to the film are Awkwafina as Rachel’s former roommate whose character and performance help elevate the comedy of the film. Michelle Yeoh is fantastic as always, and it was nice to see her as the villain of the film after many portrayals as the hero in her previous works. She also manages to add more dimension to her role beyond that of disproving mother, allowing her to escape the stereotype. The rest of the cast is also fun, making each character unique and entertaining, something that most romantic comedies often fail to do.
This is also a gorgeous movie. The sets and locations are truly amazing and filmed in such a way that makes them seem almost unreal. There is an excellent presentation of the culture of the family, which is something that not many films like this often do. It is so refreshing to see a film set in a different culture, allowing for some new elements to be added to the story that aren’t typically found in films of this caliber.
As for the story however, it is nothing revolutionary or game changing. The film follows the standard romantic comedy genre tropes and almost checks them off like it’s a to-do list. This is extremely disappointing seeing as how fantastic the cast is and how unique the locales were. This could have been a different and unique take on the romantic comedy genre, instead it plays like the most generic of the genre. What’s frustrating the most is that it seems that there are times when the film will try something new, but at the last minute it switches back to the clichés. The film does try something different by adding a subplot involving one of Nick’s cousins to serve as a parallel to Rachel’s story. This subplot doesn’t really seem necessary and only really serves to extend the films run time.
So, was this film amazing and ground breaking? From a storytelling perspective no, and its extremely frustrating that such an amazing milestone has been reached only to produce an “okay” film. The cast is excellent, and the locals are beautiful, but the story feels old and tired. I had hoped that the film’s story would have been as groundbreaking as the film itself, but alas it isn’t. In terms of the film’s ideas however, yes. While the film itself is okay, hopefully the ideas of representation and diversity ill spread through the industry. These ideas deserve original unique work to help them stand out in the sea of generic films. Hopefully that will happen, but for now it is just good to see some representation in mainstream films.
6/10