What’s Love Got to Do With It? sees Zoe (Lily James) making a new documentary about her friend Kazim’s (Shahzad Latif) arranged marriage. She can’t understand why her otherwise modern friend would undertake such an outdated practice for his family. But while making her film, Zoe, Kazim, and his family learn more about themselves and the meaning of love.
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Shekhar Kapur (director), Jemima Khan (writer), Remi Adefarasin BSC (cinematography), Guy Bensley, Nick Moore (editors)
Lily James, Shazad Latif, Shabana Azmi, Emma Thompson, Sajal Aly, Asim Chaudhry, Jeff Mirza (cast)
September 10, 2022 (TIFF)
I was looking forward to watching What’s Love Got to Do With It? at TIFF 2022. It’s been a while since Shazad Latif was on Star Trek: Discovery, and he was definitely a draw for me in this film. As was director Shekhar Kapur, the 76-year-old award-winning Indian filmmaker who is better known to Western audiences as the director of Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett. But his resume stretches back to 1983’s Masoom.
That said, I’m not sure how to feel about What’s Love Got to Do With It? It’s more an examination of arranged marriages in the modern age than it is anything else. Which feels odd to me because why are we now interrogating this tradition through the white gaze? Zoe is the protagonist of the film. She’s trying to understand arranged marriages. And she’s trying to uncover why Kazim’s family has effectively disowned their youngest daughter.
The arranged marriage storyline is such a throughline in What’s Love Got to Do With It? that when a romance suddenly appeared, I was thrown. It came out of nowhere! There had been no hint at all that the characters were anything more than friends; it’s such an underdeveloped romance that it felt like the writer ran out of ideas or gave up on interrogating arranged marriages.
I can’t be the only one that sees the white saviour narrative in What’s Love Got to Do With It? can I? Because that’s what Zoe ends up being, under the guise of the romance plotline. Her documentary helps the British-Pakistani family ‘find themselves’ and reconcile their secrets. It is so jarring to see this trope in a film in 2022. How did this get past the scripting stage, let alone end up in the final film? Zoe’s point of view might make this story accessible to white audiences (the “Trojan Horse” method) but why is she the entry point? And are people in the UK concerned or interested in the resurgence of arranged marriages? Because the film is all over the place with how it feels about the concept. I could understand if the story wanted to showcase different points of view but there’s a condescension to how Zoe views arranged marriages versus love till the very end, even as she interviews couples who have had successful arranged marriages. There’s a disconnect between what the film shows and what it attempts to say. What a strange premise to hinge an entire story on when the storytellers are too afraid to pick a side.
This lack of clarity in the script is surprising because What’s Love Got to Do With It? is a really well-made film, which is to be expected considering Kapur’s oeuvre. He has an excellent sense of pacing and knows exactly when to pause and let the audience live in an emotional moment. And there are several—there’s more than a hint of Bollywood in this film.
Kapur also has an excellent eye for colour and spectacle, greatly aided by cinematographer Remi Adefarasin. From the opening scene of a lavish wedding to the intimate shots inside Zoe’s houseboat in the first act, to the resplendent wedding venue in Lahore to the family reckoning around the kitchen in the third act, Kapur and Adefarasin enchant the viewer. What’s Love Got to Do With It? may not be as grand a film as some others at TIFF 2022 but it certainly is one of the visually sharpest.
The performances in the film are all fairly adequate. James has the bulk of work to do and effectively balances being quirky, confrontational, and emotional. Her chemistry with Latif is good but more friendly than anything else. You do get the sense that Zoe and Kazim have been friends for years though, and that’s quite a crucial aspect of the film.
I feel like Latif didn’t have as much to do as I had expected. His Kazim is soulful and torn between being duty-bound and wanting to follow his heart. Latif has a few sweet moments with James as the friends confide in each other but ultimately, I think he’s a bit wasted in this role.
As is Shabana Azmi. Arguably one of the greatest actors and activists in Indian cinema, Azmi has successfully joined Hollywood (you can see her in the first season of Halo). But aside from a few funny moments and the very adorable scene where Kazim’s parents talk about their own arranged marriage, Azmi doesn’t get much to do. But she’s effortlessly natural when she is onscreen. Azmi believably morphs into an everyday Pakistani immigrant in the UK who hasn’t quite balanced her two worlds. I’m sure a lot of immigrant mums (and their children) will recognize Azmi’s take on the character.
One performance in What’s Love Got to Do With It? I did enjoy was Emma Thompson, who plays Zoe’s mum. She was hilarious—like, laugh-out-loud funny. She says the most inappropriate things but her timing is just right. It feels to the audience that Zoe’s mum is coming from a place of good intentions—she just doesn’t know how to be sensitive to the people around her. That’s the thing about veteran actors like Azmi and Thompson—they make it look so easy, the way they slip into these characters, and their performances add so much depth to the film.
I’m not going to say I was disappointed in What’s Love Got to Do With It? but it didn’t live up to my hopes for it. The cast look like they’re having fun and the crew have done a spectacular job visually. The film is a delight to view but I don’t understand what it was trying to tell the audience. Between the weird examination of arranged marriages, which I don’t think anyone asked for, and the white saviour protagonist, What’s Love Got to Do With It? ends up being a very uncomfortable watch. I don’t know if it’s just me who feels this way. I could hear from my fellow cinema-goers that they did enjoy it but I just couldn’t get into this unnecessary premise that is never properly interrogated and too easily dropped, and the romance that comes from nowhere. At least the film looks pretty.
