Isn’t It Romantic is directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and it revolves around Natalie, an architect with low-self esteem who after having been told that romantic comedies are nothing but a hoax, ends up dismissing the idea of love. She then gets transported to an alternate reality where she is living in a PG-13 rom-com. The movie stars Rebel Wilson, Adam DeVine, Liam Hemsworth, Priyanka Chopra and Brandon Scott Jones.
The trailer for this movie really sold me, I loved the jokes and it showed off it’s great cast really well. Having seen the movie, I can gladly say that Isn’t It Romantic will be on my list go-to Valentine’s Day movies. This movie met all of my expectations. It provided the laughs which were not all shown in the trailer thankfully, it plays with it’s concept in a clever way and it presents a message which doesn’t really show up in a romantic movie which I really appreciated.
Rebel Wilson proves that she can lead a movie thanks to her charisma and comedic talent. Unfortunately she does not get the recognition she deserves. She is not just the funny girl from the Pitch Perfect movies. Adam DeVine brings his charisma as well, as usual. He is like a mix between Jim from The Office and Andy from Parks and Recreation only smarter. The role of Blake, the rich handsome billionaire seems like a role perfect for Chris Hemsworth so it was weird to his brother Liam do this. Liam is great in this movie, but he is more known for serious roles unlike his brother. However he handles the role perfectly. Priyanka Chopra is just as charming and sweet in the movie as she is in real life.
The concept of being stuck in a cliched movie has been done before, most recently on Disney Channel’s Teen Beach Movie which for a small while brought back the “60’s beach look”. This movie however is for the big-screen, well in America at least. Instead of the beach, this movie takes over the cliched romance movie story and plays it up to an eleven. Weirdly enough even though they really did go all out on the backgrounds and the sets, I felt like the really underused the power of colour.
For example in La La Land, the dream sequence is bursting with sharp colours. This movie does use bright colours, but unless you were looking for them, you would not notice. They did do something clever with the camera, when Natalie’s life sucks, the camera is used in shaky-cam sort of, however in the alternate reality and in the ending, the shots are wider and the camera is used really smoothly so that was a nice touch to differentiate her situation.
The movie truly shines when Natalie is first introduced to the idea of this alternate reality. The irony of having a pessimistic person with low self-esteem in a cliched romantic comedy is hilarious and Rebel Wilson plays it perfectly. After that the movie becomes ironically predictable as we are literally forced the cliched movie reality play out with Natalie losing all knowledge of rom-coms and just going with it. Basically the movie became the exact thing it was making fun of which is a weird move. However the twist message which is what the movie is truly about does make up for it as it is part of the journey to getting this message across.
Overall Isn’t It Romantic is a sweet and charming time with an incredibly charismatic cast. This movie smartly dodges Valentine’s Day as a topic in the story meaning this is just a rom-com worth seeing anytime not just on the holiday. The hilarious and clever script and attention to detail make this movie stand out from your typical rom-com, in other words, it accomplished what it set out to do.
owen is a filmaholic 