By Samantha Ward

It’s 2019 and Hollywood has finally attempted to give the romantic-comedy genre a modern upgrade. The recently released movie “Isn’t It Romantic” shows clear attempts at breaking the mold (or at least putting a crack in it) through comedic self-awareness of exaggerated tropes. However, with an obvious pattern of how the story approaches humor, audiences quickly catch on to the movie’s formula, and this predictability ultimately diminishes the intended affect of the film.

“Isn’t It Romantic” is about Natalie, a young professional in New York City who is played by the ever-humorous Rebel Wilson. Though her younger self was enchanted by the idea of romantic stories, she grew up to believe that they are just “lies set to terrible pop songs,” and we see her try to convince two of her co-workers of that. Running face-first into a subway station column in an accident later that day, her concussion sends her to a fantasy, alternate reality where she is the lead of a story ruled by unmistakable rom-com tropes. Comedy and personal growth ensue as she tries to get back to the real world by understanding what love is truly about.

What initially got me interested in this film was the representation of a plus-size woman in a romantic-comedy film. Like Natalie’s mother stated in the opening scene, women like them are rarely shown in these types of stories because of the idea that it would appear sad or unrealistic. The movie never directly addresses Natalie’s size as an aspect of why she was treated so poorly in the real world at the beginning of the movie, but I think the subtler approach to the subject by incorporating it into a larger message of self-love is more effective.

Rebel Wilson fills the role exceptionally well, but that’s no surprise as it fits into the personality type that she is known for portraying: self-assertive, sarcastic and relatable. Her comfort in this role is a strength of the movie as her character serves as an anchoring point in and otherwise nonsensical world of romantic clichés. Her main co-stars also represent their characters well. Liam Hemsworth and Priyanka Chopra, starring as Blake and Natalie, step up to the plate with the difficult task of portraying characters shaped by such an exaggerated fantasy world as the beautiful, seemingly perfect love interests for Natalie and her co-worker Josh who also ends up in the fantasy realm.   

The story is an interesting concept with great genre-subverting potential, but the execution could have been refined a little more. I’m coming from the perspective of someone who normally doesn’t watch romantic-comedies, but even so, the tropes this movie make fun of are quite apparent (sometimes painfully so). The humor based on the exaggerated portrayal of these tropes mixed with a sense of self-awareness was effective at first, but by the end of the movie their methods seemed repetitive and predicable.

I appreciate the attempt to tell a story that is in a sense truer to today’s more progressive standards of women standing up for themselves, stereotypes not being the absolute truth, and people of any shape and size being able to find love. It is a step in the right direction for movies, but I would like to see future ones of different genres take these concepts and play them out in varied, nuanced ways. Regardless, its warm reception by audiences may just open the door for more stories to be told of plus-size women.

Overall, I would give the film 3.5 out of 5 stars for its fairly strong cast, ability to make us laugh at straight-forward jokes and positive message. While it may not be the perfect film, you have to give it to the creators that they at least attempted something different. Perhaps the genre subversion and size representation will work out better with other genres and story lines. We’ll just have to wait and see.