NYU economics professor Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) is dating Nick Young (Henry Golding). As the best man, he invites her to his cousin's wedding in Singapore. She does not know that he's the heir apparent to a family empire.
This mostly works as a romance and family soap opera. It does have a few flaws in an otherwise valiant effort. First, I don't love this couple. I like them enough but I don't love them. It's missing the meet-cute. The movie does open with a racism-cute and I don't propose to cut that out. The relationship is simply underdeveloped. The couple has only one scene together before the movie starts throwing the Oh-He's-Super-Rich stuff at her. It needs more and it may help to have a scene with him and her mother. Their lives in New York need more time. The one scene I could cut out is the poker scene. It's meant to connect with the climatic mahjong scene but that's the next flaw.
The mahjong scene is a high difficulty move. It has to solve the conundrum in the characters' relationship. Without giving spoilers, the scene isn't perfect. First, one needs to know how to play the game in order to understand what the characters are doing. Second, Rachel needs to show both perfect deference and perfect defiance. It's almost an impossible task which they try to do with the game. It may work in a book where the author can explain the concepts. A movie doesn't have the time to explain it all. I would do it differently but I must admit that I may not have it cracked either. Rachel should at least defend her mother in her speech.
What's great are the actors and the simple act of making this film. The characters are compelling if only Ken Jeong can hold back a little. Michelle Yeoh is a great dragon lady. The staging is impressive. For all the riches, this diamond does have its flaws.
