‘Crazy Rich Asians’: What the Critics Are Saying

Author: Katie Kilkenny / Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Does the Jon M. Chu-directed pic live up to the, well, crazy expectations? Reviewers weigh in.

The Crazy Rich Asians reviews are in, and critics are falling for the much-anticipated romantic comedy.

The Jon M. Chu-directed adaptation of Kevin Kwan’s international bestseller follows NYU economics professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu), who follows her boyfriend of two years, Nick Young (Henry Golding), to a wedding in his native Singapore to be his date.

There, Rachel suddenly comes to terms with the fact that Nick’s family is gobsmackingly wealthy, and that his family, especially his mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), won’t be easy to convince that she’s a suitable match for Nick. Crazy Rich Asians also stars Awkwafina, Gemma Chang, Ken Jeong, Jimmy O. Yang and Chris Pang.

For The Hollywood Reporter, critic David Rooney wrote that, saddled as the film is with astronomical expectations given the dearth of Asian-fronted films at the U.S. multiplex, the film is “a thoroughly captivating exploration of the rarefied question of whether true love can conquer head-spinning wealth.”

Rooney particularly admired the performances of Wu, Awkwafina (who earned the moniker “scene-stealer”) and Yeoh, who he said refuses “to make her a one-dimensional dragon lady but rather a woman fiercely protective of her family and mindful of the kind of wife she thinks Nick will need in order to take his rightful place as head of their massive pan-Asian real estate empire.”

Slate‘s Inkoo Kang elaborated on how the film, despite its Singoporean setting, is a distinctly American product. One of the ways it is: spectacle. “Emotionally layered, culturally specific, and frequently hilarious, Crazy Rich is a transportive delight, with food montages to die for (the film offers a splendid showcase of Singapore’s justly celebrated street-food scene) and a wedding processional so exquisite I started crying at its sheer beauty,” Kang wrote. “As a product designed for crossover appeal, Crazy Rich is canny, too: Here in a single package are characters of Asian descent as both relatable and exotic.”

Kang nitpicked the film for celebrating the capitalist pleasures of some of its characters while also shortchanging the development of some of the Singaporeans. Still, she conceded, “But…

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