With the title What’s Love Got To Do With It? older cinemagoers might be
forgiven for thinking that they’re back in 1993 and Angela Bassett is
reprising her role as Tina. Thankfully we’re not back in 1993 and rather
being a musical biopic What’s Love as we’ll call it is a hugely enjoyable
rom-com starring Lily James, Shazad Latif and Emma Thompson.
What’s Love is a film about arranged relationships. On one side of the
fence, quite literally as they both stayed next door to each other, is Zoe
(Lily James) a documentary film-maker who is addicted, with very little
success, to dating apps and whose interfering mother Cath, (Emma Thompson)
is always trying, much to Zoe’s annoyance, to set her up in a relationship.
On the other side of the fence is Zoe’s next door neighbour and best friend
Kaz (Shazad Latif). Kaz is following his parent’s wishes and opts for an
arranged marriage to a bright and beautiful bride from Pakistan, a bride he
has only spoken to a few times over zoom.
Zoe decides that her next project should be a documentary about Kaz’s
arranged marriage and she goes with him and her mother to Lahore to
document on film his upcoming wedding.
What’s Love is your average rom-com which is lifted above the ordinary by
some sparkling performances from a wonderful cast, Lily James lights up the
screen every time she appears and Shazad Latif’s charisma flows from the
screen.
It might be predictably cheesy but by the end I guarantee What’s Love will
have melted the hardest of hearts and you’ll come out of the cinema feeling
slightly better about the world.
Recommended
