ISN’T IT ROMANTIC – A Review by Cynthia Flores
Isn’t It Romantic is a film that’s hell-bent on being an anti-romcom fest, but it starts with the theme music from the Iconic 1990 film Pretty Woman. That’s part of the problem with the film. It’s hard to do a consistently flowing storyline when you have to reference as many cliché moments from the vast canon of romantic comedies out there. Add to that the characters themselves are dissecting the mechanics of most “RomComs” down to the fact that most are sexless PG-13 rated movies. I think it would be hard for anyone to do it well.
Pretty Woman, the song by Roy Orbison, is blaring from a TV set where a young Natalie (Alex Kis), seen as a chubby-faced twelve-year-old girl, is mooning over the romance between the hooker and the rich man. Her mother (Cameo by the fabulous Jennifer Saunders) decides to set her daughter straight on the ways of the world. Informing her that kind of mush is only for people that look like Julia Roberts and not for girls like them. Fast forward twenty-five years and we see a grown Natalie (Rebel Wilson) living in a real-looking cramped New York City apartment on a dirty and busy neighborhood. She’s excited to get to her dingy office to turn in her designs on a new parking structure for a hotel the company is designing. At work, she’s disrespected by her fellow architects, her office manager, and just ignored by most. She takes refuge with her assistant mousey Whitney (Betty Gilpin) and co-worker Josh (Adam Devine). Both Whitney and Josh are hardcore believers in the power of love and enjoy a good RomCom. Of course, Josh is crushing hard on Natalie who doesn’t see that she’s the object of his affections. Josh gives her a pep talk and sends her into the meeting to pitch her idea to the client Blake (Liam Hemsworth). Blake is tall, good-looking and rich everything Natalie knows she can’t have because she is not the kind of girl that kind of guy goes for. Ok, you see where I am going with this thing. Romance setups on speed, so I will just give you the highlights here.
Natalie is mugged on the subway and wakes up in a beautiful hospital room. She is put into clothes from the lost and found and looks exactly like Vivian from Pretty Woman after she’s gone shopping. Once on the street, Natalie runs into Blake who gives her a ride home in his limo. Once there she realizes that her whole world has been put through a beauty filter. It takes her a while to understand that she is stuck in a RomCom and therefore has to play by its rules and make someone fall in love with her. Of course, in this world, she is given an over the top gay best friend Donny (Brandon Scott Jones), and her old mousey friend at work Whitney is now beautifully fierce and hates her.
As Natalie goes on her quest, there is singing, dancing, and lessons to be learned about loving yourself before you can truly be loved by someone else. None of that is terrible; it’s just heavy-handed. Isn’t It Romantic is hilarious at moments in the way that the 2000 film Scary Movie was. Both are great at skewering a whole genre of filmmaking, but this movie is just so overzealous in its need to bring home the point of self-worth that it gets in its own way at times.
Isn’t It Romanic is funny and definitely worth viewing at the movies as a date night film or a night out with the girls. Will it be the kind of film you watch multiple times like a lot of the RomComs it’s skewering? No, I don’t think so. For that reason, I’m giving it a B- rating.
Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson
Written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, Katie Silberman
Rated PG-13
Selig Rating B-
Running Time 1hr 28min
Comedy
Wide Release February 13th
Starring: Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine, Priyanka Chopra, Betty Gilpin
The Selig Rating Scale:
A – Excellent movie, well worth the price.
B – Good movie
C – OK movie
D – No need to rush. Save it for a rainy day.
F – Good that I saw it on the big screen but wish I hadn’t paid for it.
