'Isn't It Romantic' a love letter to the rom-com
“Isn't It Romantic” - ★ ★ ★
Even when done well, romantic comedies are easy to pick on. They're so earnest and full of unrealistic fairy tale standards. Thus, intelligent women have been taught that there should be a healthy serving of self-hatred with whatever enjoyment you might glean from a well-done makeover montage. And we relegate these addictively appealing films to guilty pleasures.
That's kind of the premise of “Isn't It Romantic” in which a rom-com hating woman played by Rebel Wilson bonks her head and ends up in one herself.
Natalie is introduced as a young girl glued to the television in a run-down apartment where her mother is off to the side making an ice cream and boxed wine float. On the screen is a young Julia Roberts in a bubble bath in “Pretty Woman.” Natalie's mother tells her not to expect anything like that out of life. They don't and never will look like Roberts and so the fairy tale is out of the question. Pretty harsh, but her mom is right.
Cut to adulthood and Natalie is a normal, messy adult. Her apartment is small and dirty. Her hair is a little frizzy. Her clothes are ill-fitting. Her co-workers at the very ordinary looking architecture firm where she works treat her like an assistant and she can't seem to see that her friend, Josh (Adam Devine), is in love with her.
Much like Amy Schumer's underappreciated and thematically similar “I Feel Pretty,” it takes a traumatic head injury for Natalie to wake up in rom-com land, where Manhattan smells like lavender, cupcake and wedding shops adorn her city street, her apartment is palatial, a handsome billionaire named Blake (a wonderfully goofy Liam Hemsworth) wants to date her and everyone is very, very nice (except her best friend at work, Whitney, played by Betty Gilpin, who has turned into a rival).
Directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, it's an enjoyable surface-level experience that hones in on all the generic rom-com tropes you love to hate. Natalie now falls down all the time, but it's adorable! She wakes up with full hair and makeup. The man down the hallway in her building has turned into a magical gay best friend who is always there to freak out over minor developments in her love life. Everything is moving exaggeratedly fast, too, and it's all scored to a fizzy blend of '90s and early 2000s rom-com music staples.
“Isn't It Romantic” stays pretty surface level, which makes for a fine viewing experience, but doesn't exactly do anything to show that rom-coms would be better if the best friends had more of an inner life, for example. Still, it's fun to join a world with unrealistically glamorous jobs and apartments and wardrobes, especially when there's a good story to go along with it! And also, you can never go wrong with an upbeat song and dance scene. No guilt necessary.
<b>Starring:</b> Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine, Betty Gilpin
<b>Directed by:</b> Todd Strauss-Schulson
<b>Other:</b> A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG-13 for language, sexual situations and a drug reference. 88 minutes