“Polite Society” (2023) is about two Pakistani British sisters, Ria (Priya Kansara), an aspiring stuntwoman, and Lena (Ritu Arya), an art school dropout. When Lena falls for a wealthy eligible bachelor, Salim (Akshay Khanna), Ria tries to break up the engagement, so Lena won’t give up on her artistic talent; however, Ria’s mission becomes more urgent when she discovers that Lena is in genuine danger if she gets married. 

I went into “Polite Society” super excited, but I wonder if external circumstances affected my reception. I saw the preview and the reference to Edgar Wright’s work seemed accurate. I was rooting for a woman of color writer and director making her feature film debut about a Pakistani girl and women kicking ass. The hitch: the night before the screening, I saw “Beau Is Afraid,” which is a punishing three hours long. Then Lyft lied to me and jerked me around for a half hour before I flagged down a cab, which got stuck in late evening traffic because of construction on the Mass Turnpike. Even with all its problems, the T may have been the quickest choice, but there were also multiple games ending at the same time so maybe not. By the next day, I went into this movie tired, and it did not help that it started twice so the margin for error was slim.

Let’s start with the good news. “Polite Society” has a bit of a sci fi plot that starts at the sumptuous Eid festival, which ties nicely with current and cultural events. My memory could fail me, but the only other Western film that featured an Eid Festival was “Appropriate Behavior” (2014). I love a holiday film. The representation brought me joy, especially the outfits featured at every special occasion. It is a gorgeous film.

The actors are phenomenal, and the cast is perfect. In her feature film debut, Kansara as the lead carries the movie with unflagging determination and enthusiasm. I would watch her in anything considering the physicality of her role and having to say some ridiculous lines without bursting out laughing. Kansara and Arya were seamless as sisters and a gorgeous duo. Their dynamic is adorable and credible. The opening sequence nails the sisters’ dynamic as inseparable but opposing places in life. Ria is filled with optimism and Lena is sliding into self-condemnation. My favorite scene is when Lena decides to make a decidedly non-portable food item into street food. Arya has the harder job of not losing the audience’s favor when she takes a regressive step backwards and chooses her fiancé over her sister. Khanna helped Arya do some heavy lifting, and they made sense as a couple on their dates.  Falling for him did not seem dumb.

The sisters’ parents, Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) and Raff (Jeff Mirza), felt underutilized, but also resonated as people who were trying hard to let their daughters be themselves, but obviously had something else in mind and were eager to celebrate Lena’s traditional turn. Nimra Bucha as Raheela stole the show as Salim’s well-to-do mother and villain. Her imperious manner then warm acceptance made it plausible that Lena and Fatima would be thrilled to receive her acceptance and ignore Ria’s panicked warnings. “Polite Society” underplayed the sinister dynamic that the sisters’ mom was less concerned with her daughters’ well-being and getting to be a part of the mom in-crowd by becoming Raheela’s family. While “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.” (2023) managed to make three generations of women’s lives textured, the older women were two-dimensional to their younger counterparts in comparison.

The fight scenes were terrific and after the cast, the best part of “Polite Society,” but the film runs into what I call the “Charlie’s Angels” (2000) problem, which was resolved in “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (2003), a classic and the best in the franchise, 10/10, no notes. When entering a fighting universe, the rules need to be established, and the Angels would be doing all sorts of ridiculous stunts then have a realistic moment when someone kicked their ass because that person was stronger, which is fine except there were plenty of people who seemed stronger before that they beat. Ria has a lot of spirit, but um, in this world, she is not even the best fighter in her school, and now I must suspend disbelief that she can take Raheela, who has her beat in experience, height, weight, craziness and fierceness.

“Polite Society” never nailed the tonal balance between being realistic and over the top probably because they steered into the playfulness and youth of the protagonist. So there would be these mature, terrific moments of Lena as a single woman with Ria as a high school girl in uniform, but up to hijinks as if she was much younger complete with goofy disguises such as an oversized mustache. The action was lethal, and people were getting hurt, but when the protagonist is framed as a child, it makes the fight scenes less fun. Also in the denouement, even though blatant illegal crap is unfolding, to add to the mayhem, it appears that all the bystanders are all Raheela’s henchmen, which strains suspension of disbelief though earlier henchmen, estheticians as torturers, were a sensational twist. On one hand, I love that sisters’ drama could be imbued with the serious stakes of a spy movie, but it never gelled. It was too ridiculous to be feasible as a cohesive story.

My biggest problem with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (and all movies) is when the script introduces unnecessary conflict that hurts a character’s reputation to heighten the tension so the protagonist has to be alone and have artificial reunion moments. In this film, Ria lashes out at her besties, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri), then they reunite after barely making up. “The Spy Who Dumped Me” (2018) is the gold standard for genre mashups like action and comedy, and the best part of the film was the strength of the friendship. If they could break up, I do not want it. Your friends should love you more than yourself, and Ria’s move alienated me from her. I love an unlikeable female protagonist, but not if they are not a good friend.

Also while it is believable that the entire family would choose Salim over Ria—families have chosen men over their own daughters for less, it does not make me feel good about any of them. I stopped rooting for them, and I am no longer invested in their story long before the denouement. They were ready to institutionalize Ria! That tone shift is too big for me. We’re not making up! Also there is a physical fight between the sisters, which happens in real life except with less skill. The fight killed the mood for me. I stopped having any fun, and getting through “Polite Society” became a chore.

While tying the sisters’ ambitions could have worked, it undermined “Polite Society” when Lena tries to puncture Ria’s hopes for herself. A better dynamic would be each sister believing in the other more than themselves instead of Ria’s lopsided love. This emotional violence obliterated my interest in the film. 

Nevertheless I am very surprised and disappointed that “Polite Society” is not playing in Cambridge or Somerville. We have a huge Desi community so there is an audience for it. If you are interested in seeing this film, you’ll have to go to Boston or Woburn. WTH!