'Isn’t It Romantic' Is an Excellent Riff of Romantic Comedy Movies

When I first saw the trailer for Isn’t It Romantic, I just knew I had to watch it.  For it had the premise that I couldn’t remember ever seeing in a chick flick.  Even if ever it happened to suck, I thought it was worth watching for its premise alone.

So the movie follows Natalie (Rebel Wilson), who, as a kid, used to enjoy watching romantic comedies like Pretty Women.  But after her mom discouraged her of watching them – pointing out that, in real life, girls like Natalie don’t get happy endings in the same way attractive women like Julie Roberts do – she grew cynical of finding true love.  Twenty-five years after she became disenchanted of rom-coms, she’s now a hardworking architect who is often overlooked and treated like a doormat in her workplace.  While taking the subway home, she’s mugged, and in the struggle, she knocks herself unconscious by running to a pole.  When she wakes up, she discovers that she’s taken to an alternate universe of her life.  And, to her horror, it’s a PG-13 romantic comedy film.

The “trapped in a rom-com” setup is easily the best part of this film.  It’s a lot of fun to watch Natalie being forced to interact with a world that follows the ridiculous logic and done-to-death tropes of a rom-com.  She has to live the hilariously perfect life of a leading lady, which includes consistently bumping into hot men for potential romances.  What makes it more amusing is that she’s prevented to do things that are beyond the parameters of a PG-13 rating.  When she attempts to have explicit sex, it cuts forward to the morning.  Or whenever she tries to drop an F-bomb, she’s censored by a random sound, like a passing truck or an alarm clock.

This movie made me laugh a lot.   As far as a satirical deconstruction of a chick flick, it’s excellent  However, it’s not only that.  Albeit self-aware, it’s still pretty much a romantic comedy itself.  It often falls prey to the very clichés it makes fun of.  And as a rom-com film, it’s just a pedestrian one.

Nevertheless, Isn’t It Romantic is quite fun and moderately heartwarming.  Although its main narrative isn’t as original and clever as it could be, it presents many notably entertaining moments along the way.  And, in the end, my pre-assessment of it is spot-on: its premise alone makes it worth watching.