by Tessa Green

Growing up I was obsessed with romantic comedies and looked forward to my weekly movie session with my mom, where we would watch everything from “27 Dresses” to “Pretty Woman.” My mom, even though she loved these movies as well, would always point out how unrealistic the protagonist’s life in New York City was. So, when Natalie, Rebel Wilson’s character in “Isn’t it Romantic,” wakes up in a romanticized version of the city after hitting her head during a feud with a robber and says, the line “Someone must have put a beauty filter over New York,” I burst into laughter. Wilson shines in this laugh-out-loud comedy which achieves its goal of picking fun at cheesy rom-coms, all while being one itself.

Natalie, is a 20 to 30 year-old architect in New York who lives in a tiny apartment, lacks respect from her coworkers and has a distaste for romantic comedies, which stems from her mother’s criticism. She’s also oblivious to her coworker/best friend’s, (played by fellow “Pitch Perfect” co-star Adam DeVine) feelings for her. After leaving her job, Natalie attracts the attention of a stranger on the subway, which is a huge red flag. She, however, ignores the stranger-danger rules most people learn as a child and stops to talk with him. He wastes no time in punching her in the gut and attempting to steal her purse. During the brawl that ensues Natalie runs into a wall knocking herself out cold. When she comes to, she’s

been transported into her own rom-com where the streets of New York City smell like lavender, her apartment is an elegant penthouse and she catches the eye of handsome billionaires who look like Liam Hemsworth. After discovering her romcom is rated PG-13, Natalie decides she’s got to take the quickest route out of it. /

During the scenes that follow almost every plot line of a romantic flick is made fun of, including, but not limited to, the woman whose life is changed after falling in love with a billionaire, the woman who realizes she does have feelings for her best friend right when he is about to marry the wrong woman and the woman who realizes the one she is in love with is herself. Each scene was made better with a punchy one-liner delivered by one of the leads, that had everyone in the theater laughing.

One of the movie’s stand-out features is the differences director Todd Strauss-Schulson created between the real world and the fantasy world Natalie wakes up in. From the start of the film the characters look normal, the lighting is rather dim like most office settings and there is not much of a soundtrack.

Although the film makes fun of these cheesy clichés, it is not free of them. The ending is predictable from the start of the movie and Natalie discovers that even though she hates romantic comedies, her real life is one. While the ending is cliched, it also leaves the viewer with a positive message of the necessity of having confidence and loving oneself. While the movie itself is not breaking any new boundaries, it’s a fun film that will leave the viewer laughing, smiling and overall having a good time. Oh, and the ending dance scene is worth sticking around for.