What’s Love Got to Do With It? Review

What’s Love Got to Do With It? Is a rom-com with a twist with its focus being on arranged marriages.

Kazim “Kaz” Khan (Shazad Latif) and Zoe (Lily James) have been friends since childhood. Zoe is surprised when Kaz reveals he’s getting an arranged marriage. Zoe sees an opportunity to film Kaz’s search for a wife for her next documentary.

What’s Love Got to Do With It? has been heavily advertised in the UK and it seemed like it was putting a modern spin on the rom-com genre. However, the film ended up being a conventional and disappointing film.

During the film some characters raised concerns that Zoe’s documentary could be seen as a ‘white lens’ story. That was a great way to sum up What’s Love Got to Do With It? The film was about a Pakistani family and culture, but told through the perspective of a white person. Arguably this was done because Zoe could act as an audience surrogate and James was a marquee star, but a director like Gurinder Chadha has made a career of making films about culture clashes within British-Asian families with characters from Indian or Pakistani heritage in the main roles.

What’s Love Got to Do With It? was a film that played things overly safe. It’s a story that was conventional where Kaz and Zoe clearly have feelings for each other but don’t act on them. James played a similar character in Yesterday and it felt like she just had a slightly different coat of paint. The story was predictable where there were love rivals and tough choices had to be made. Zoe had similar issues to Jessica Brown Findley’s character in Paramount+’s Flatshare because both characters were singletons struggling to find a man in the British capital.

I went to the film with my sister-in-law and she said she felt she was catfished and that the best bits were in the trailer. I thought the trailer was a bait-and-switch since after the first act the film goes from being a rom-com to a dramedy. The comedy slowly drains away and the film focused on more serious issues about the Khan’s family issues and Zoe’s romantic problems.

What’s Love Got to Do With It? was at its best during the first act. This part of the film performed close to its full potential. This was where the film was focusing on the matchmaking process. Asim Chaudhry was hilarious as Mo, the owner of a dating service that set up matchmaking events for people to mingle. It shows the modern process for arranged marriages because people do get to meet their potential partners and decide if it’s right. It’s a more positive message than the stereotype some people might have about arranged marriages.

There was a solid concept for a rom-com where it focused on a couple entering into an arranged marriage. The tagline could have been ‘first get married and then fall in love.’ But this idea disappeared because of Zoe’s appearance and hinting at the potential romance between her and Kaz.

The film tried to touch on the theme of interracial relationships. Kaz’s family had issues with one of them marrying a white person and it caused a rift within the family. It goes against the Khan parents saying they were a modern Pakistani family. It would have been a more conventional story, but it would have been more interesting to see a couple from different cultures falling for each other. Ali & Ava did that last year.

The filmmakers also wanted to show Pakistan in a positive light. Halfway through the film The Khans, Zoe, and Zoe’s mum, Cath (Emma Thompson) go to Lahore for the wedding. Kaz’s grandmother had a conservative overlook, but the younger people in the city were more willing to party and had some vices. Kaz showed Zoe around the city and told her about the culture, like when a group of men was singing a traditional song.

Plausibility was pushed at times in the film. The film was sparked by Zoe filming a documentary and she was meant to be an award-winning documentary maker. But she was armed with a retail camera and plug-on microphones. Documentaries normally have a film crew. Emma Thompson’s character was shown to be a family friend to the Khans who made inappropriate comments. She was able to drop everything to take a last-minute flight to Lahore. It was lucky that Zoe and Cath were around for the cinematic resolution.

What’s Love Got to Do With It? was wasted potential. It could have given the rom-com genre a new spin, but it ended up being a predictable and safe affair which made it a disappointing experience.