No, It Isn’t Romantic

Why I Didn’t Like Rebel Wilson’s New Movie

I+walked+into+the+movie+with+high+expectations+and+I+was+disappointed.+

Photo by Estefani Rios

I walked into the movie with high expectations and I was disappointed.

Estefani Rios, Reporter

Let me get right to the point, “Isn’t it Romantic” was an okay movie. It’s wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t anything that I truly loved. There are some spoilers below, so if you want to see the film, I wouldn’t read this yet.

The movie is directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson, who is the director of the “Final Girls” movie as well. It stars Rebel Wilson (Natalie), an architect who doesn’t believe in love, Adam Devine (Josh), Natalie’s best friend, Liam Hemsworth (Blake), a client for the company Natalie works for and Priyanka Chopra (Isabella), a yoga ambassador and swimsuit model.

As mentioned, Natalie doesn’t believe in love, and especially hates cliché romantic comedies. After an altercation in the subway, she ends up in the hospital and suddenly wakes up in a romantic comedy universe.

Now, I think I would have enjoyed the movie if there was truly something unique about it. When Natalie rants to her assistant Whitney (Betty Gilpin) earlier in the movie, she points out every single cliché in rom-coms. To my disappointment, everything she mentioned happens later in the movie, in her rom-com universe. There were no surprises, and to be honest, the plot was plain and boring. I understand that the whole point of the movie was to showcase the clichés, but I feel that they could have included other plot elements to make the movie interesting. Also, there’s a parking garage analogy that related to her situation of self-doubt and not loving herself like she should, but to me, it was forced.

Although it wasn’t my favorite movie, I did like some parts of it. I liked the comedy; it was very much Wilson’s style of comedy, similar to her character in “Pitch Perfect.” I also liked the musical numbers, and my favorite one was the karaoke to “Dance with Somebody.” The lighting, background music and different cinematography styles and techniques used were really well done.

The movie runtime is 88 minutes and is rated PG-13, with minor references of drug use and sexual references. You can see it at AMC, Cinemark, Alamo Drafthouse and other local theaters.

My rating is two out of five rom-coms.

Graphic by Estefani Rios