Lily James

Shazad Latif

Shabana Azmi

Emma Thompson

Sajal Ali

Oliver Chris

Asim Chaudhry

Jeff Mirza

Alice Orr-Ewing

Mim Shaikh

Iman Boujelouah

Pakiza Baig

Alexander Owen

Ben Ashenden

Sindhu Vee

Taj Atwal

Michael Marcus

Shaheen Khan

Haqi Ali

Peter Sandys-Clarke

Ravi Aujla

Wasim Zakir

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan

Nosheen Phoenix

Nikkita Chadha

Katie Anjuli Singh

Jamal Andreas

Shannon Shanthakumar

Munir Khairdin

Adil Akram

Anna Marsh

Ron Halpern

Nitin Sawhney

Lucas Webb

Remi Adefarasin

Nick Moore

Sarmad Masud

Sarah Harvey

Katherine Pomfret

Adrian Bell

Guy Bensley

Joe Naftalin

Lucy Bevan

Simon Elliott

Nick Angel

Olivia Grant

Caroline McCall

Jemima Khan

Shekhar Kapur

Tim Bevan

Nicky Kentish Barnes

Eric Fellner

Sally Tynan

Tara McDonald

Gemma Hoff

Zoe Freed

Glenn Freemantle

Rebecca Heathcote

Jemma Riley-Tolch

Tom Coates

Annie Gilhooly

Romance

Comedy

What's Love Got to Do with It?

Working Title Films

Instinct Productions

StudioCanal

France

United Kingdom

CinemaSerf

If you remember "Last Christmas" (2019) then you will have a rough idea of what to expect here with this rather formulaic, if colourful, drama. It all centres around a film being made by "Zoe" (Lily James) about the forthcoming "assisted" marriage of her lifelong friend "Kaz" (Shazad Latif). Her mother "Cath" (Dame Emma Thompson) lives next door to his family and so is relishing the family trip to Pakistan for the traditional wedding. "Zoe" is (as, I suspect, are we) pretty sceptical of the whole arrangement - getting married to someone you've only met on Skype, but proceed we do through a lively ceremony that allows Dame Emma to don her sari and dance for all she is worth (gin-fuelled!) whilst the predictable love triangle melodrama slowly, but predictably, plays out. It all comes to an head when they have returned home and she shows her film to all concerned and, just like this, it receives mixed and divisive reviews. I found this all very twee, middle class and vaguely judgmental which after a while I felt rather defeated the purpose in the first place. It is pretty clear from the start what is going to happen, and although the route to that conclusion isn't exactly a straight line, this leaves very little room for jeopardy to a plot you can see from Mars. Latif has a degree of charm to him, and some of the scenes with Lily James are quite engaging in a cheesy sort of way, but for the most part this is eminently forgettable fayre that will do fine on telly at Christmas.

Largely underwhelming, even if <em>'What’s Love Got to Do with It?'</em> holds a few redeeming qualities.

It's all competently shot and all that, the music for example is excellent - nice work, Nitin Sawhney & Co. The level of acting is also all good, though I wouldn't say there is necessarily anyone that stands out individually. On that note, Emma Thompson: As usual I like her, but her character isn't the best - I feel like I've seen her play the same (similar, at best) character one or two times before recently-ish, <em>'Last Christmas'</em> for example. She's merits more to work with.

The story is one that is almost as old as time, like with the aforementioned I feel like I've seen this plot play out many a time. It has a couple of unique elements I guess, but overall it's pretty derivative. I'm also not sold on Lily James' Zoe being 'Player 1', so to speak... like, her character is fairly meh.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that Mariam Haque's Jamila should've been the film's key - that part of the story interested me the most of anything else portrayed onscreen. Haque and Michael Marcus's portion only features relatively smally, so I kinda wish they used them two instead as their bits are the most touching.

All in all, it's fine - but is too mundane and predictable to be definitively enjoyable, in my opinion of course.

English

Português

اردو

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? - Clip starring Shazad Latif, Lily James

STUDIOCANAL PRESENTS: THE PODCAST - Asim Chaudhry on What's Love Got to Do With It?

Pakistan True or False Quiz with Asim Chaudhry |  What's Love Got to Do With It?

Meet the cast of WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? - Lily James, Sajal Aly, Shazad Latif, Emma Thompson

Pakistan True or False Quiz with producer Naughty Boy |  What's Love Got to Do With It?

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan in WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Ping-Pong Clip from WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Starring Shazad Latif and Lily James

Whats Love Got to do with It | Dir. Shekhar Kapur Interview

Guess the Rom-Com with Emma Thompson | WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Love and Marriage - A deep dive from Lily James, Shazad Latif, Emma Thompson, Jemima Khan and more

Lily James and Shazad Latif take a Friendship Test - WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Official International Trailer

Official UK Trailer