Isn’t It Romantic – Film Review

Isn’t It Romantic is a Netflix Original romantic comedy which is also ironically a parody of romantic comedies at the same time. Starring Rebel Wilson as Natalie. Natalie is an overlooked architect who gets mugged at the subway in New York and wakes up in an alternate universe where New York is colourful, everyone is stunning, happy and she can’t even swear. Realising that she’s stuck in a PG-13 romantic comedy movie scenario, Natalie believes she’s living her worst nightmare and reluctantly plays the story through until she can find her way out.

With nods to the ultimate romantic comedy queen, Julia Roberts (if you don’t agree, you can fight me), Isn’t It Romantic makes references to films Pretty Woman and My Best Friend’s Wedding while throwing puns left right and centre. Although the cast is small, Rebel Wilson has great chemistry with every cast member. Liam Hemsworth’s character Blake is an Australian billionaire bachelor who is quite ‘beguiling’. I thoroughly enjoyed how ignorant Blake was to Natalie’s sarcasm throughout the film. Liam Hemsworth surprised me as I didn’t know he could be funny and do it so well. Priyanka Chopra is the perfect woman as ‘yoga ambassador’ Isabella, Brandon Scott Jones effortlessly plays gay best friend and neighbour, Donny and finally, the talented Adam Devine is endearing as Natalie’s best friend and fellow work colleague, Josh.

As a fan of Pitch Perfect, I was pretty excited to see Devine and Wilson on-screen together again. Disappointed at first with their characters’ lack of interactions, I was really happy that the two get to sing and dance together in the end as the entire cast do a little dance number during the credits which is quite a fun treat.

Although I do find the concept of Isn’t It Romantic to be rather clever with the execution somewhat satisfactory, there were still a handful of scenes (especially the one with the singing and choreography) that were extremely cheesy to the point of being cringeworthy. I do understand that this was done purposefully however, due to the film being a satirical romantic comedy.

Isn’t It Romantic is no game changer, but it’s great for fans of the Pitch Perfect film series, fans of Rebel Wilson and those who love a good classic chick flick. I enjoyed the jokes and laughed a lot more than I thought I would. Rebel Wilson is great in this film because she’s naturally funny and even though her character is stuck in a parallel romantic universe, you still find Natalie believable, relatable and sarcastically charming. Despite being an obvious satire, Isn’t It Romantic still is a romantic comedy that has its sweet moments. If you know your romantic comedies, you will probably enjoy this film the most, as this movie is made for you.

Sign up to receive weekly updates on our most recent reviews.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *