This is not the Tina Turner biopic called What’s Love Got To Do With It. The Oscar nominated movie from 1993 doesn’t feature a “?” at the end. The version with the “?” is a brand-new movie about the subject of arranged marriages. While decades ago, such a topic was always seen as distasteful and draconian, over the last few years, unmarried people have been curious if this is the best way to find that allusive spouse. We see a lot of this on TV. Married At First Sight has a group of single folks willing to let “experts” pair them up with someone that they will only meet at their wedding. There’s also the Indian Matchmaking series that matches up strangers. The difference is the aspiring brides and grooms aren’t obligated to marry their prospective mates. Arranged Marriages were mostly done to preserve royal bloodlines, build business empires or settle gambling debts. What’s Love Got To Do With It? is more like the Indian show about “assisted marriage” with a Pakistan twist as seen through the lens of a London-based documentarian.
Zoe Stevenson (Downton Abbey‘s Lily James) is a documentary filmmaker looking for her next project. The production house wants her to find a topic a bit happier than her proposal of Honor Killings. She finds something more happy next door. Her neighbors are having a big party that she attends with her mom (Love Actually‘s Emma Thompson). Her longtime pal Kaz Khan (Star Trek Discovery’s Shazad Latif) is ready to marry and his mother has set him up with a matchmaker to find him a gal back in Pakistan. The production company agrees to let Zoe follow Kaz on his matrimonial journey that goes from meeting future wife Maymouna (Gidh‘s Sajal Ali) on Skype to traveling to Pakistan for a massive wedding ceremony. Zoe questions her own life choices since she’s had really bad luck in meeting men over the years. Is there any difference between this set up and finding a guy on a dating app? Is this what see needs to attract more than a one-night stand?
What’s Love Got To Do With It? reminds us how relationships and marriages are extraordinarily tricky to make successful because they involve people. Your feelings and expectation may differ or change as much as your potential partner’s emotions. Over the years, I’ve met friends who had dated for years and when they got married, they found themselves filling for divorce in a matter of months. I’ve known people who met by a chance encounter and got married in a whirlwind and are still hitched. You can’t tell what’s going to work between people or even if what works for now is going to work for years to come. Lately the people showing up on Married At First Sight have an unrealistic expectation that the “experts” will find them the love of their lives and they don’t really have to do anything else. I appreciate in the film that there is a sense that even if you are set up to marry someone, you still have to do more. It’s not like ordering a meal at the drive thru. Maybe some people just can’t be in relationships as we sense in the movie. Kaz questions Zoe’s dating habits as to why she keeps finding herself hooking up with losers.
There is quite a bit of talent attached to the film. Director Shekhar Kapur became a sensation in the mid-90s with The Bandit Queen and Elizabeth (that starred Cate Blanchett). He does more than deliver a rom-com. There’s a bit of depth to the cultural exploration of marriage. Lily James is completely different from her recent turn as Pam Anderson on the Pam & Tommy miniseries. Shazad Latif gets a chance to stretch his legs for those of us used to him playing voiceover studio producer Clem Fandango on the Toast of London series. He gives us a man who gets stuck doing things because of tradition and family. Is he making the right choice by going through with the assisted marriage process or is it as good as depending on your heart? What’s Love Got To Do With It? asks quite a few questions about the nature of marriages and how we end up with people.
The Video is 2.39:1 anamorphic. The 1080p transfer brings out the spectacular colors of the wedding sequence. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 5.1. You’ll hear great music from all over the room. The movie is subtitled.
The Making of (14:32) has Jemima Kahn discuss how she lived in Pakistan with her husband for 10 years. She wanted to bring out the colorful nature of the country. Emma Thompson discusses how director Shekhar Kapur gets them to playfully connect.
Trailer (2:42) sets up how the two neighbors get along.
Shout! Studios present What’s Love Got To Do With It? Directed by Shekhar Kapur. Screenplay by Jemims Khan. Starring Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Sajal Ali, Oliver Chris, Asim Chaudhry, Jeff Mirza, Alice Orr-Ewing and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Running Time: 109 minutes. Rating: Rated PG-13. Release Date: September 19, 2023.
