On the very long drive down to Florida, I listened to the Crazy Rich Asians audiobook. The whole time, I just couldn’t understand how the movie made such a big splash when the book just felt was so unrelatable on so many levels, with a prose that is simply… adequate. I honestly thought “shit, how did this book get turned into a film. I don’t want this book to reflect Asian-Americans.”
The main plot between Rachel and Nick was, in most ways, a standard feel-good romcom variations, but subplots involving Astrid and Eddie were jarring. Were we suppose to sympathize with a multimillionaire heiress who suspects her husband was cheating on him? What about a conceited “family” man who’s main purpose in the plot is to further magnify the fact that money doesn’t buy happiness? Like the people in the story, it just seems to me that there’s too much fluff between the covers, and not enough substance
… which is probably why the movie was such a big hit. The math is simple: glamour + good actors = pretty decent film.