Movie Review - Isn’T It Romantic

DIRECTOR - Todd Strauss-Schulson
CAST - Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam DeVine, Priyanka Chopra

Isn’t It Romantic is a light hearted, Romantic Comedy Commentary movie, which is an unusual tale, but it makes through to the end. Warner Bros. Produced and Netflix released internationally, Rebel Wilson’s Isn’t It Romantic, is more and less what trailer tells us, but what it doesn’t say is that ‘beguiling’ is throughout the movie and Priyanka Chopra isn’t featuring in this movie for more than 10 minutes.

Natalie (Wilson) from young age has made been believe that Rom-Com are illusion, unrealistic and it’s all about ‘Pretty Women’ and handsome men. Whereas she is surrounded by people who believe in Rom-Com’s and she keeps arguing about them. There’s Josh (DeVine), who is co-employee of Natalie and Blake (Hemsworth) a billionaire and client of her firm. Then she is mugged on station, and she lands in Colourful, Fresh smelling, and luxurious New York, and then she realises that her life has turned into ‘PG-13 Rom-Com’.And this movie shows everything you expect in a Rom-Com, Girl with rich house fells in love with a billionaire, have a Gay ‘counterpart, and will fight to achieve the person who initially she showed no interest in.

The idea and creativity applied in this movie to fill up all the stereotypes we have for Rom-Com’s, makes it worth watching it for. Wilson has convincingly played the role of Natalie, and she has an amazing comic timing, and she does complete justice to her role. DeVine, has underplayed the character, more could have come out of Josh, writing looks sloppy for his character, with less depth, and that goes for all character other than of Natalie’s.

Liam Hemsworth was given a role in which a lot could have been done, enough room to experiment with character’s life, which goes all flat. He did much better role with less screen time in Hunger Games series than in this movie. Last, and for the least time there is Priyanka as Isabella, who plays so called ‘Yoga Ambassador’, who is also a rich model, who is about to get married to person, who Natalie now loves, already being in a relation with Blake. Priyanka’s character had a short screen time and she does make some impact with it, which is commendable.

The story is co-written with 3 writers, filled with humorous scenes, and nuances like advertisement posters, iconic romantic scene, and of course, New York City. Though all these remain in background, but still makes really good impact. Schulson has done brilliance in making each scene funny, even though you didn’t see it coming. There is a clever approach, which honestly is really refreshing to watch, and something you expect when a movie is a commentary and mocking. Especially in one song, where everyone is dancing, in complete sync, and it is said, “It’s so unreal, everyone knew the steps”, and anything abusive is muted with background audio. Though there could have been more of these and in proper sync with story especially during last 30 minutes, where it really looked off and incoherent, which could have been done better, in my opinion.

Overall, this movie makes you laugh, takes you to a Fairy land of Rom-Com, and Rebel Wilson stands apart from everyone else, and completely worth watching

Rating – 3/5