Crazy Rich Asians - 4 smiles

“Crazy Rich Asaians” is a fun, enjoyable comedy and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy. It manages to incorporate a few serious themes that hit close to home, especially with America’s current hostility toward immigrants. It also features an appealing cast. Based on Kevin Kwan’s popular novel, “Crazy Rich Asians” follows a young couple who, while deeply in love, hit conflict when family gets involved. Rachel (Constance Wu) is an economics professor at NYU and daughter of a single mother who came to the US from China just before she was born. Boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) is the son of a massively rich Singaporean family, unbeknownst to Rachel. Nick is planning a trip back to Singapore for his best friend’s wedding and wants Rachel to go with him. She agrees to go, but is anxious about meeting his mother, Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh). It turns out that Eleanor is even frostier and less welcoming than Rachel feared, Nick is far richer than she could have imagined and she’s greeted as a gold-digging schemer.

This plot is pretty basic. What sets “Crazy Rich Asians” apart is director Jon M. Chu, who orchestrates a lavishly designed circus of excess with threads of class snobbery, family pride and the path of true love running throughout. The one drawback is that there are so many characters that some stories, like that of Nick’s kind, elegant cousin Astrid (Gemma Chan), get short shrift. The two leads, Wu and Golding, are charming and genuine and the supporting cast keep the mad story spinning. Yeoh’s Eleanor is suitably regal although she shows flashes of believable sympathy. Rachel’s mother, played but Singaporean stage and TV actor Tan Kheng Hua, brings warmth to the film’s more serious moments. Others show up for comic relief: Ken Jeon is a nouveau Rich dad with a wardrobe of tacky gold athleisure outfits, Jimmy C. Yang plays an old pal of Nick’s who’s lost in 80s excess. Awkwafina (superb in the recent Ocean’s 8) is a standout as Peik Lin, Rachel’s college chum and sidekick. Rachel reunites with her in Singapore and relies on Peik Lin’s love and support when the going gets rough. By pulling together so much Asian talent, Chu demonstrates that performers of all colors and ethnic backgrounds often goes untapped, just because Hollywood refuses to color outside the lines. Here’s hoping the the box office for “Crazy Rich Asians” will support more movies like this.