Cert 15 119mins Stars 2

This first half of this comedy was infectiously funny and left me in stitches, but a second half overdose of  mawkishness brought me out in a rash.

Stand up comic Kumail Nanjiani stars as an aspiring stand comic called err, Kumail. While working as a taxi driver and hoping for a big break, he falls for Emily.

Actress Zoe Kazan is smart, sexy and funny and there’s a sweet chemistry between the atheist Pakistani and the middle class white American. Jokes about the perils of dating have a comic accuracy.

But the film isn’t really interested in Emily, and she’s quickly shunted into a coma so the script can focus on the self-pitying man-child, Kumail.

The fun stops there, and we’re forced to endure watching Kumail get to know Emily’s bickering parents. It becomes nauseatingly cloying, and by the end I felt queasy. When Emily goes to sleep, it’s the cue for the audience to do so as well.