Film Talk: Latest Movie Releases – East meets west in rom-com that's looking for love
From the moment she danced onto the screen as Downton Abbey’s Lady Rose (a much-needed injection of youthful optimism after the demise of Lady Sybil), Lily James has shone, shone and shone.
It takes a special kind of actor who can capture the spirit of both Cinderella and Pamela Anderson, while in the intervening years also giving us solid versions of Natasha Rostova and Elizabeth Bennett (albeit the latter as a trained zombie-killer). And lest we forget, James also brought joy to our hearts in Danny Boyle’s Beatle-phile frenzy, Yesterday, and stood out – despite a world-breaking performance from Gary Oldman – in Churchill biopic, Darkest Hour.
This week, James is strapping on her leading lady shoes alongside a star whose past work holds a particularly special place in my heart. Despite his stint in Spooks, my first experience of Shazad Latif was in Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain’s Fresh Meat. For the uninitiated, this was an Inbetweeners-esque sitcom that featured Jack Whitehall et al as a mismatched gang of university freshers. With it coinciding with my own uni years, I adored it – they got it spot on. The next time Latif reared his head in my world was when he got his Kling-on in Star Trek: Discovery, giving one of the series’ most compelling turns to date.
Now, he and James are taking a walk into rom-com land with Shekhar Kapur’s What’s Love Got to Do with It? With Emma Thompson also in tow, this one is pulling out all the stops to be counted among the storied likes of Love Actually, Notting Hill and About Time. But even with the talent packed in, does it set our hearts aflutter? Let’s take a look...
WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? (12A, 109 mins)
Released: February 24 (UK & Ireland)
Drawn from screenwriter Jemima Khan’s experience of relocating from London to Lahore for the only love marriage in her Pakistani ex-husband’s family history, What’s Love Got To Do With it? casually compares eastern and western recipes for lasting romance and ultimately can’t choose between them.
Director Shekhar Kapur’s confection creates an ideological gulf between a white British heroine, who right-swipes men in and out of her busy London life, and her Pakistani childhood friend, who risks nothing in his pursuit of love by relinquishing responsibility for choosing a bride to his parents.
Bridging this divide is beyond Khan’s amiable but lightweight script, a valentine to Pakistan and its people peppered with solid one-liners that feel like they need a final spit and polish (“Human eggs have a sell-by date too!”).
In an exuberant supporting role that could easily teeter into caricature, Emma Thompson works tirelessly to milk laughs and generate good will that is lacking for her on-screen daughter played by Lily James.
Her rudderless, commitment-averse city girl actively seeks out Mr Wrongs, is emotionally cold, has a troublesome relationship with alcohol, is rudely dismissive of potential partners and too absorbed in her work to devote time to any meaningful connections, including with her mother.
Her best friend, played with an abundance of charm and warmth by Shazad Latif, looks beyond this self-destructive, unsympathetic behaviour. During a pitch meeting with boorish film company executives, documentarian Zoe Stevenson (James) proposes an intimate portrait of her next-door neighbour Kaz Khan (Latif), who has agreed to an arranged marriage overseen by his parents Aisha (Shabana Azmi) and Zahid (Jeff Mirza).
The project, dubbed Love Contractually, is hastily greenlit and Zoe and her camera wilfully intrude on Kaz’s day-to-day existence as he meets with Mo the Matchmaker (Asim Chaudhry) and is eventually paired via Zoom with softly spoken law student Maymouna (Sajal Aly), who lives in Pakistan.
The Khan clan including Kaz, his parents, brother Farooq (Mim Shaikh) and sister-in-law Yasmin (Iman Boujelouah), and grandmother Nani Jan (Pakiza Baig) descend on Lahore for a colourful mehndi pre-wedding party with Zoe in tow.
Her emotions crescendo and she questions the groom-to-be’s relationship rationale.
Meanwhile, Zoe’s effervescent mother Cath (Thompson) takes a leaf out of the Khans’ playbook and ‘arranges’ for handsome vet James (Oliver Chris) to ask her daughter on a date.
What’s Love Got To Do With It? politely deliberates if a pragmatic approach to romance founded on compatibility is favourable to passionately falling for someone and suffering a nasty concussion after the honeymoon.
Kapur simmers familiar ingredients for 109 minutes but scrimps on the intoxicating and fragrant spices to elevate a flavourful stew to the unmissable dish of the day.
COCAINE BEAR (15, 95 mins)
Released: February 24 (UK & Ireland)
Inspired by an outlandish true story, the aptly titled Cocaine Bear is an unapologetically gory and hallucinogenic action comedy directed by Elizabeth Banks, which embarks on a murderous rampage in the company of the titular mammal.
Millions of dollars of drugs belonging to notorious smuggler Syd Dentwood (Ray Liotta) are ditched in Chattahoochee National Forest in northern Georgia before the plane goes down.
Some of the consignment mistakenly falls onto residences in nearby Knoxville, Tennessee, attracting the attention of law enforcement led by Detective Bob Springs (Isiah Whitlock Jr) and partner Officer Reba Mitchell (Ayoola Smart).
Dentwood tasks trusted drug dealer Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr) with recovering the waylaid narcotics to avoid violent repercussions from Colombian associates and Daveed enlists the help of Dentwood’s son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), who is grief-stricken over the recent loss of partner Joanie.
Meanwhile, concerned mother Sari (Keri Russell) enters the forest accompanied by park ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and a wildlife inspection rep (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to track down her 13-year-old daughter Deirdre (Brooklynn Prince) and classmate Henry (Christian Convery), who have skipped school to paint a secret waterfall. Strangers converge in the wilderness and come face to snout with a 500-pound apex predator, which has consumed a large quantity of the jettisoned cocaine and is attacking anyone in its drug-crazed path.
BROKER (12A, 129 mins)
Released: February 24 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Celebrated Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda embarks on a sentimental road movie in the company of two men, who make money by placing unwanted children with new families.
Dong-soo (Gang Dong-won) grew up in an orphanage and he volunteers at a church with a baby box, where unwanted infants can be left without judgment.
Occasionally, Dong-soo steals one of the abandoned babies, erasing the CCTV evidence of his wrongdoing, and sells the child on an adoption black market with his cash-strapped business partner Sang-hyun (Song Kang-ho).
When mother Moon So-young (Lee Ji-eun) unexpectedly returns for her baby Woo-sung (Park Ji-yong) and threatens to expose Dong-soo and Sang-hyun’s scam, they agree to bring her along on the heart-breaking journey to find new parents. Police detective Su-jin (Doona Bae) has been tracking them as part of a six-month investigation and is poised to make an arrest.
SELFIEE (12A, 135 MINS)
Released: February 24 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Akshay Kumar and Emraan Hashmi join forces on screen for the first time in a comedy drama directed by Raj Mehta.
Regional Transport Office inspector Om Prakash (Hashmi) is responsible for ensuring drivers on the road have the correct documentation. He is a diehard fan of Bollywood superstar Vijay Kumar (Kumar) and yearns for a selfie with his screen idol.
Exciting news reaches Om Prakash that Vijay will be coming to Bhopal to shoot his next picture and the actor requires a fast-track driving licence for the film’s exciting climatic sequence.
Om Prakash agrees to bypass bureaucratic red tape if he can hand the driving licence directly to Vijay and take a photograph.
However, his actions light a media firestorm that pits the actor and his biggest fan against one another.
Diana Penty and Nushrratt Bharuccha co-star.
JOYLAND (15, 127 mins)
Released: February 24 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Saim Sadiq makes his feature film directorial debut with a provocative drama about the desires bubbling beneath the surface of a patriarchal Pakistani family in the heart of the conservative city of Lahore.
Haider (Ali Junejo) is the softly spoken youngest son of a lower middle class clan, which eagerly awaits the birth of his brother’s baby boy. The older scion already has three daughters so there is pressure to deliver a male heir to proudly continue the bloodline.
Haider and wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq) abide by religious tradition and uphold the family’s expectations until the son crosses paths with transgender starlet Biba (Alina Khan).
The dancer beguiles Haider and he secretly takes a job as a background dancer.
