I saw Jon M. Chu's Crazy Rich Asians with a friend who recently read the book and assured me "the book is better", so this review is not a referendum on the novel (which I haven't read). Just FYI.
There are two awesome things about Crazy Rich Asians. One is Awkwafina's performance as Peik Lin Goh, the main character's eccentric friend from college who steals the show. The other is the fact that this is the first Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast since, I shit you not, 1993's The Joy Luck Club. And what a cast it is! Michelle Yeoh, Constance Wu...hell, even Ken Jeong has a memorable supporting role.
But to be honest, the movie itself is below this talented cast. It nearly buckles under the weight of its own pat sentimentality and rom-com cliches.
Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is a an incredibly successful woman: an economics professor, she is the youngest faculty member at NYU. She has a close relationship with her mom, who raised her on her own. She also has a ridic hot boyfriend, Nick Young (Henry Golding) who has just asked her to travel with him to Singapore to attend his best friend's wedding. But what Rachel finds out as she and Nick are led to their private suite on the transatlantic flight is that Nick's family is rich...crazy rich.
No, like, you don't get it. CRAZY RICH. Like, these people wipe their asses with 20 dollars bills. And Nick is the golden son: heir to his family's fortune and essentially royalty in Singapore.
You might ask yourself, "wow, isn't that kind of shitty for Nick not to tell Rachel this? Like, possibly a relationship-ending offense?" and you'd be right! But then we wouldn't have the movie, right? And also, we wouldn't be able to enjoy the mildly jolty ride towards the obvious and not very realistic conclusion that love is more important than money.
Rachel has every right to be a little mad that Nick didn't tell her the reality of his family ahead of time, mainly because his mother hates her right off the bat. Michelle Yeoh is awesome as Nick's classy, cold mother who "would do anything for her son" as long as she gets to control his life. Eleanor Young is pissed that Nick has spent so much time in the States when he's promised to move back and learn the family business. Now that he's fallen in love with a scrappy Chinese-American, she fears (rightfully) that he might never move back.
Rachel also gets guff from Nick's ex, Amanda, and some miscellaneous cousins who call her a gold-digging bitch...even though she didn't even know about Nick's family's wealth. Ugh, money really does ruin everything, doesn't it?
There are some nice family members too--Cousin Oliver who is the gay "rainbow sheep of the family", Cousin Astrid whose wealth and beauty doesn't stop her husband from cheating on her, and many others, but the film doesn't really give us time to get to know these interesting characters--instead, it gives us a makeover sequence, a bachelorette/bachelor party sequence, and the actual wedding scene which, ugh, reminded me why I don't like weddings.
I really did not like the barrage of romantic comedy tropes here. The overwhelming soundtrack that tells you exactly how to feel with its swelling violins. The groomsman who tells the groom that he hopes his bride won't "take his balls" (UGH). There's even a AIRPLANE PROPOSAL. A proposal. That takes place. On an airplane. It's the biggest cliche of all rom-com cliches, and it's done without a hint of irony.
Also irony-free is the materialism porn in the movie. Look, I get that the film is called Crazy Rich Asians, but the movie just does not let up with the mansion porn and designer clothes porn and that wedding-industrial complex porn...holy shit. And it would have been ok if the plot itself had been a little meatier, but it wasn't. What's more, the film suggests that as long as one's heart is in the right place, wealth doesn't matter. But I don't agree--the level of wealth presented in the film is...well, it's inherently unethical, and there's not even a small attempt to pay lip service to the fact that many people in China live in outrageous poverty. Here's a story about people who live in "Coffin Homes" in Hong Kong.
I really struggled with this movie because I wanted to like it so bad, but it was so cliched and shallow. From what my friend told me, the book is far less cliched (no airplane proposal, for example) and spends more time with the individual family members, thus giving more depth and context to this insanely wealthy family. Crazy Rich Asians has been getting really good reviews and I'm glad that a Hollywood film with an Asian cast is making bank. If you love romantic comedies, by all means please check this film out. But from what I've heard, it sounds like the book is miles better than the film.
Grade: C+
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