What’s Love Got To Do With It (2023) – Fine

IMPORTANT NOTE: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movies being covered here wouldn’t exist.

Released: 26th January
Seen: 11th August

Sometimes a film title is so strongly tied to the content of the film that the title enters a list of titles that probably should never be used again. Some titles just draw certain images to your mind, for example, a film could never reasonably be called “Philadelphia” again because everyone’s going to make a horrific AIDS joke about it. Some titles just have a link to a topic to them that can’t be ignored… this was the thought process I had when I heard that a film was coming out called What’s Love Got To Do With It? because that is the title of the legendary 1993 Tina Turner biopic and using that title for a silly little romcom felt like an insane choice. Having seen the film, it turns out that it’s not a big deal because something tells me that no one’s going to really remember that this one exists in a few years so there shouldn’t be any confusion happening.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? follows a young documentary filmmaker, Zoe (Lily James) who has found the perfect topic for her next film. Her childhood friend and neighbour Kaz (Shazad Latif) has been set up with an arranged marriage with a woman from Pakistan so Zoe intends to film the entire process from meeting the matchmaker all the way up to the wedding itself. Along the way Zoe and Kaz have frank discussions about love and relationships and why arranged marriages are good actually while dancing around their own feelings about each other. Along the way, we have wacky moments with assorted family members, discussions of cultural clashes, and basically every other thing that you’ve already thought about when you read that it was a romcom about an arranged marriage.

The good thing about What’s Love Got To Do With It? is that it delivers exactly what you expect from it, one look at the poster or trailer and you immediately go “Oh, that’s a charming little British romcom where Emma Thompson has a supporting role” and sure enough the film delivers exactly that. The exact beginning, middle and end that you think you’re going to get when you hear the basic premise is what is provided by What’s Love Got To Do With It? without any real surprises, meaning if you think this film is going to be for you based on the trailer or basic premise then you’re absolutely going to enjoy this film. The downside is that if the poster instantly made you sigh “Oh god, not another cliche romcom” then you’re also right because this film is not going to surprise you.

Fortunately for What’s Love Got To Do With It?, it has a set of great performers in the lead roles that actually manage to really have a lot of chemistry. Lily James and Shazad Latif absolutely carry What’s Love Got To Do With It?, creating a charming and believable friendship that slowly grows throughout the entire film. There’s a basic understanding that for a romcom to work the romance needs to be believable and in this case, it very much is, it’s a slow-burn relationship between childhood friends that actually makes sense. You get why they haven’t even thought about this kind of thing up till now due to the cultural importance of the arranged marriage at the center of the plot. The fundamental relationship of this film is easy to follow and easy to like, huge plus right there.

While the Rom part of this Romcom really works well, the Comedy part is a little off (at least in this one person’s view, you might find it hilarious because comedy is subjective as hell). It just never feels like there are any actual jokes there and when they are it has the air of a line someone ad-libbed on the spot. There are no jokes that are even that memorable, even a short half hour after watching the film it’s hard to point out a particularly funny moment beyond just generally gesturing at Emma Thompson and assuming she made a joke at some point because it’s Emma Thompson in a romcom, that’s kind of what you hire her to do. Now, there is a chance (and I’ll cop to this) that there might be some jokes that make more sense if you’re either British or Pakistani, it could be playing to an audience I’m not a part of (always a risk, this is why you should read a diversity of views from a diverse group of reviewers if you’re using these as a way to see if you want to watch a new film)… but on the other hand, I’ve laughed at films aimed to very specific audiences before so it’s more likely that it’s just not that funny.

Considering the film does delve into some pretty powerful ideas of how different cultures experience the world, it doesn’t really get to do much with that beyond just pointing out that there’s a difference or that some things are problematic… it’s surface level, the entire film is just surface-level fluff that points to interesting ideas without doing anything about them. That’s fine, you don’t have to turn your silly little rom-com into some serious piece investigating how a modern-day Muslim family feels about having their personal lives interrogated by a white woman trying to use their story to become known but it feels a little odd to point in the direction of an interesting story without going there.

It must also be said that there is something kind of nice about a film that has a large cast of Pakistani actors (either actors from Pakistan or British actors with Pakistani heritage) telling this story that doesn’t other them, in fact it makes sure their culture is treated with respect and even calls out other characters when they step out of line. It might be mild praise but “telling a story about non-white people without being a dick about it” is actually surprisingly hard for some reason and What’s Love Got To Do With It? handles it better than a lot of other films in this genre. Hell, it’s just nice to see a mainstream romcom have a diverse cast, even if it’s not that funny it at least has some reason to exist.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? is not great nor is it actually bad. It’s pretty much the exact film that you expect it to be, it could’ve been made at any time in history with no real changes and its biggest sin is just coasting by on charming leads and a plot that you can pretty much call beat for beat within 5 minutes of the film starting. If you’re a British romcom fan then sure this is going to tick all those boxes well enough to be a serviceable hour and a half, might even make you say “Aww” a few times when the inevitable overtly sweet moments come along but that’s all it’s going to do. Other than that, it’s not going to offer any surprises that’ll make people who aren’t already big fans of this genre of film want to pay attention. It’s fine, it’s not hurting anyone or doing anything worthy of being called out. It exists, it’s doing its job, that’s all that can be asked of it.