What's Love Got To Do With It? (12A)

During a pitch meeting with boorish film company executives, documentarian Zoe Stevenson proposes an intimate portrait of her next-door neighbour Kaz Khan, who has agreed to an arranged marriage overseen by his parents. The project, dubbed Love Contractually, is hastily greenlit and Zoe and her camera wilfully intrude on Kaz's day-to-day existence as he meets with Mo the Matchmaker and is eventually paired via Zoom with softly spoken law student Maymouna, who lives in Pakistan.

LondonNet Film Review

What’s Love Got To Do With It? (12A) Film Review from LondonNet

Drawn from screenwriter Jemima Khan’s experience of relocating from London to Lahore for the only love marriage in her Pakistani ex-husband’s family history, What’s Love Got To Do With it? casually compares eastern and western recipes for lasting romance and ultimately can’t choose between them. Director Shekhar Kapur’s confection creates an ideological gulf between a white British heroine, who right-swipes men in and out of her busy London life, and her Pakistani childhood friend, who risks nothing in his pursuit of love by relinquishing responsibility for choosing a bride to his parents. Bridging this divide is beyond Khan’s amiable but lightweight script, a valentine to Pakistan and its people peppered with solid one-liners that feel like they need a final spit and polish (“Human eggs have a sell-by date too!”)…

In an exuberant supporting role that could easily teeter into caricature, Emma Thompson works tirelessly to milk laughs and generate good will that is lacking for her on-screen daughter played by Lily James. Her rudderless, commitment-averse city girl actively seeks out Mr Wrongs, is emotionally cold, has a troublesome relationship with alcohol, is rudely dismissive of potential partners and too absorbed in her work to devote time to any meaningful connections, including with her mother. Her best friend, played with an abundance of charm and warmth by Shazad Latif, looks beyond this self-destructive, unsympathetic behaviour. My powers of forgiveness are, by comparison, severely limited.

During a pitch meeting with boorish film company executives, documentarian Zoe Stevenson (James) proposes an intimate portrait of her next-door neighbour Kaz Khan (Latif), who has agreed to an arranged marriage overseen by his parents Aisha (Shabana Azmi) and Zahid (Jeff Mirza). The project, dubbed Love Contractually, is hastily greenlit and Zoe and her camera wilfully intrude on Kaz’s day-to-day existence as he meets with Mo the Matchmaker (Asim Chaudhry) and is eventually paired via Zoom with softly spoken law student Maymouna (Sajal Aly), who lives in Pakistan.

The Khan clan including Kaz, his parents, brother Farooq (Mim Shaikh) and sister-in-law Yasmin (Iman Boujelouah), and grandmother Nani Jan (Pakiza Baig) descend on Lahore for a colourful mehndi pre-wedding party with Zoe in tow. Her emotions crescendo and she questions the groom-to-be’s relationship rationale. Meanwhile, Zoe’s effervescent mother Cath (Thompson) takes a leaf out of the Khans’ playbook and ‘arranges’ for handsome vet James (Oliver Chris) to ask her daughter on a date.

What’s Love Got To Do With It? politely deliberates if a pragmatic approach to romance founded on compatibility is favourable to passionately falling for someone and suffering a nasty concussion after the honeymoon. Kapur simmers familiar ingredients for 109 minutes but scrimps on the intoxicating and fragrant spices to elevate a flavourful stew to the unmissable dish of the day.

– Jo Planter