Isn’t It Romantic, Warner Bros’ highly publicized romantic comedy, was released on February 13th, just in time for Valentine’s Day, and successfully met viewers’ high expectations. It was portrayed as an engaging film, providing a creative interpretation of what it means to “fall in love,” by paying careful attention to satirize the typical aspects of a romcom. The trailer was an accurate representation of the overall tone of the movie and gave insight into the type of humor that was found throughout the film.

Isn’t It Romantic begins with Natalie (Rebel Wilson), the main character, having a flashback from her childhood; she is watching a romantic comedy and thinking about her own future happy ending, but her mother (Jennifer Saunders) reminds her that “girls like us” do not have fairytale lives because of their appearance. Because of this, Natalie is unconfident in herself and has grown a hatred of all romance shows and movies because of their unrealistic nature, predictable storyline, and typical characters such as a beautiful woman (Priyanka Chopra), a handsome doctor (Tom Ellis), a loyal best friend (Adam Levine), a competitor at work (Betty Gilpin), a rich love interest (Liam Hemsworth), and a gay best friend (Brandon Scott Jones). She is so oblivious to the world around her that she does not notice that she has a secret admirer, and has a firm belief that no one will be able to love her because of her flaws. However, as she is traveling home on the subway one day, she gets mugged and hits her head on a metal post, causing her to wake up in an alternate universe, which she later determines is a PG-13 romcom. In order to get home, she attempts to play out the typical plot by having men fall in love with her, but she later discovers that the love she needs is completely different from the one she expected. After she returns to her own life again, Natalie has more self-confidence and sees her life changing for the better in ways she had never expected before.

The movie had some definite strengths, which mostly lay in its visual aspects and humor, including the costumes and makeup. I appreciated the vivid colors and the different, although stereotypical, styles that the characters used. For example, the portrayal of all the characters in an average romantic comedy was extremely elaborate and their outfits, along with their personalities, reflected each individuals’ predicted characteristics. The backgrounds that were used were also multifaceted and depicted all of the aspects that you imagine when you think of a romcom, including things such as clear skies, beautifully decorated living spaces, and a stereotypical big-city scene. My favorite part of the movie was the consistent humor that made the movie light-hearted and allowed it to effectively satirize its genre.

However, the movie was unable to distance itself from the very things it was mocking, making it very similar to other romcoms. Like most other romantic comedies, Isn’t It Romantic did not have many surprises in it and was relatively predictable in terms of what will happen to the characters by the end of the movie. Although the producers did attempt to make it more interesting by adding a positive message to the story, it was also cliche and did not compensate for the basic plot.

Overall Isn’t It Romantic was an above-average film, which was able to deliver on most of the promises that it made to its audience. Although the plot was rather underdeveloped, the humor, character development, and costumes were able to capture the attention of the audience. I enjoyed this movie, and in the future, I hope that Warner Bros will continue to make more entertaining films.

4 out of 5 stars