Crazy Rich Asians Movie Review

Crazy Rich Asians (2018)

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Written by: Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim (screenplay by), Kevin Kwan (based on the novel "Crazy Rich Asians" by)
Directed by: Jon M. Chu
Starring: Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Ken Jeong, Awkwafina
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Native New Yorker Rachel Chu travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick to attend his best friend's wedding. Rachel meets Nick's family and discovers his family is absurdly rich.

Verdict
This is a rom-com, and while it has a lot of the typical tropes, this doesn't resort to cheap laughs and gags. While this does have the wacky friend, this is a smart movie. Much of the wackiness could be excused as rich people have more money than sense. Constance Wu does a fantastic job. This is definitely one of the better rom-coms with solid writing.
Watch it.

Review
Constance Wu does such a great job in this. It's easy to empathize with her and not just because of what happens. She delivers a fantastic performance that's vulnerable and confidant as required. It feels authentic.

This movie doesn't feel the need to spell everything out. We see a scene in London from 1995 of a very rich family and use those clues to assume we're seeing Nick in the present day. Nick's family is crazy rich, but his girlfriend Rachel is unaware. As they fly to Singapore for Nick's best friend's wedding, Rachel is surprised to learn they are flying first class. As she begins to realize Nick may not have told her the whole story she asks him if his family is rich. His response of, "We're comfortable." confirms her suspicions as she replies. "That's exactly what a super rich person would say."

The movie doesn't detail why Nick hid his wealth, but we can assume it's a combination of his overbearing mother, his dislike of his life being mapped out, and just wanting to be normal and escape the stigma of being rich. He's easily the most normal rich person we see.

The wealth disparity, which was hidden, sets up the conflict. While this falls into a lot of rom-com tropes like Rachel's wacky friend presented for exposition, this avoids making the movie about Rachel proving she's not a gold digger or trying to act rich by employing slap stick comedy. While Nick's family has their suspicions about Rachel, this centers around her relationship with Nick.

I don't know how much of a cultural commentary or exploration this is, though I assume the sacrifices Nick's mom made to ensure he was a favorite is culture bound. Rachel doesn't quite fit in, and she is accused of being more American than Chinese. While it's certainly a negative here, identity should be more about culture than just skin color.
Nick's mother denigrates Rachel for choosing a profession over being a homemaker. Nick's mother and grandmother don't like Rachel at all.

This definitely is a look at rich people who have more money than sense. Part of that is just percentages. Everyone spends money on stupid things. Rich people can spend stupidly on a much larger scale.

I wasn't sure where this movie would go. Would it go the happily ever after route or subvert that trope? It easily could have become a game of one-up manship between Rachel and Nick's mom, devolving into some sort of slapstick, but this movie is smarter than that. This is less a romance-comedy and more of a drama. The comedy is not forced, but derived from realistic situations. This captures parent interaction really well, for both Rachel and Nick.

Rachel realizes there's no way to win over Nick's family. She cares about Nick and puts him first, which again is something the movie doesn't feel the need to spell out. That's a really great scene when Rachel confronts Nick's mom. These are smart characters, and the movie assumes the viewer is smart too. This is a very well made rom-com and there aren't many of those.