Well, it had to happen. With as many romantic comedies that Hollywood has cranked out over the decades, a parody of them had to be the next step. There have been a plethora of them: "Pretty Woman", "The Wedding Singer", "Runaway Bride", "27 Dresses", "13 Going on 30", "The Proposal" to mention a handful. So when I saw my first trailer of "Isn't It Romantic", I really felt that it had potential and I was right.
New York City architect Natalie (Rebel Wilson) works hard to get noticed at her job, but is more likely to be asked to deliver coffee and bagels than to design the city's next skyscraper. And if things weren't bad enough, Natalie, a lifelong cynic when it comes to love, has an encounter with a mugger that renders her unconscious, waking in a hospital to discover that her life has suddenly become her worst nightmare--a romantic comedy--and she is the leading lady.
As Natalie's 'alternate universe' occurs, we see that the people in her 'normal' life become the stereotype in this new world--her hard-as-nails neighbor, Donny (Brandon Scott Jones) becomes the gay sidekick to Natalie, the leading lady, An obnoxious investor Blake (Liam Hemsworth) becomes her new, handsome love interest, her office assistant, Whitney (Betty Gilpin) becomes her social nemesis, her good fiend and co-worker, Josh (Adam Devine) actually ends up being the same as in the real world, and a model on a poster, Isabella (Priyanka Chopra) becomes a possible love interest for Josh. As these new characters unfold, we see a direct correlation with all the typical, formulaic structure as in the genre of romantic comedies.
Others to round out the cast are Jennifer Saunders as Natalie's mom, Alexandra Kis as 12 year old Natalie and Jay Oakerson as Gary.
This was cleverly directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson ("Private High Musical" '08, "Blimp Prom" (TV movie) '09, "Drunks vs. Highs (TV movie) '09, "Naked But Funny (TV movie) '10, "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas" '11, "Zombies and Cheerleaders" (TV movie) '12, "The Final Girls" '15) plus TV and shorts. The emotions this filmmaker was able to extract from Wilson being totally perplexed of this new world she's now in was simply amazing, but considering that light fare is his comfort zone, he must've felt right at home with this project. It was creatively written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox and Katie Silberman, based on a story by Cardillo. The only one of these writers that has the lion's share of feature film experience is Dana Fox and considering the other two writers have limited feature film experience, this was surprisingly written well. It is a tight, cohesive, concise script with sharp satirical wit and even though it was as predictable as the genre it's parodying, because the writing was delineated so well, it was actually a pleasure watching it, not to mention entertaining. Other than a couple of hairline places of choppiness, this storyline simply soared. This had all the occurrences that one would find in a typical romantic comedy replete with how scenes go from starting something to the next day--like sex scenes--because they are rated PG-13, the sidekick friend, the guy who clearly doesn't match the girl and the other guy who's clueless.
I typically NEVER recommend romantic comedies to anyone to see, but since this is a parody of that genre, I feel this is clearly an exception. It's got a great ensemble cast, especially Rebel Wilson whereas this is probably the best role she's ever portrayed. Also both Liam Hemsworth and Adam Devine were very believable in their roles. This is a great popcorn flick so go and enjoy.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 88mins.
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