Isn’t It Romantic movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Isn’t It Romantic (DVD)

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 1 hour 28 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B+

IN A NUTSHELL:

Timed perfectly for Valentine’s Day, this cute and breezy romantic comedy is a spoof on rom-coms that makes for a fun Date Night or Girls Night Out. Rebel Wilson’s character explains how toxic rom-coms are because they teach young girls unrealistic expectations about love. Director Todd Strauss-Schulson explained that this movie is really a romantic comedy about falling in love with yourself.

The director watched around 90 romantic comedy movies for two weeks straight in order to discover and include the tropes in his spoof. He noticed the smallest details, such as making sure the dogs that are seen in the movie are the breeds most common in rom-coms. Rebel Wilson, by the way, is really pretty in this movie and carries it very well.

It releases on Netflix on February 28 in countries outside the USA.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Some profanity, crude language, and 1 F-bomb. There are some funny scenes when horns honked in the fantasy world so you don’t hear Rebel Wilson’s character sear.
Implied pre-marital hanky-panky. In fact, the scene about it was pretty funny because it kept cutting the details out.
A woman flips the bird.
A guy makes sexual facial expressions and sounds to imitate that famous scene in When Harry Met Sally
Talk of weed.
As a mom, I appreciated the fact that the strongest theme in the film was to love yourself. Girls and women of all ages really need that reminder.

THEMES:

“Your flaws are what make you beautiful.” – Whitney (Betty Gilpin)
Love yourself.
“I complete myself.” – Natalie (Rebel Wilson)

THINGS I LIKED:

Fans of Pitch Perfect will get a kick out of seeing Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine together again. I admit that Pitch Perfect is one of my guilty pleasures. I thought she looked really pretty in this movie. The hair and make-up team did a great job.
Both the fantasy world and the “real” world are fun places to spend time.
I love how Natalie fought against the mugger on the subway and how that scene ended. Ha ha
Lost and found clothes. Ha ha
I loved Natalie’s gelato drawer in her freezer!
The music on the Isn’t It Romantic (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is super fun that fans of rom-coms will love.
Two cute musical numbers. Yes, if you loved Rebel Wilson’s singing in Pitch Perfect, you’ll get to hear her again.
Wow, Chris and Liam Hemsworth are quite the hot brother team. They seem to have similar comedic timing. Liam normally uses an American accent in movies, but this time, he showed off his native Australian tongue. Rebel Wilson is known for her Aussie accent and so she kept it in this movie too.
This is Rebel Wilson’s first leading lady role in a movie. As a producer, she said one of the perks was getting to kiss two love interests in the movie. It was refreshing to see a “heavier” girl star in a romantic comedy.
I was really impressed with the great range Betty Gilpin showed in both of her characters and would love to see more of her in something else.
Brandon Scott Jones was hilarious as Natalie’s “sassy gay friend” spoof.
Tons of movie references like 13 Going On 30 and The Fault In Our Stars. In fact, the movie begins with a young Natalie watching Pretty Woman. Later, the grown-up Natalie wears the same dress design that Julia Roberts wore at the opera in Pretty Woman. It’s that wow-pow, off-the-shoulder red gown. She also wears that cute dress and hat that Julia wore on her revenge shopping day on Rodeo drive. Such a cute movie classic in a weird prostitute way.
Good directors use color to teach us something or evoke certain emotions in movies. Director Todd Strauss-Schulson tried to mute the colors and keep them as more greyed tones in the “real” world so that he could really make them pop in the fantasy version. Nice touch.
I hadn’t seen Jennifer Saunders in anything for a long time, so it was fun to see her again, even if it was just a short cameo as Natalie’s cynical mother.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

You don’t get to hear Adam DeVine sing very much. A fun duo with him and Rebel Wilson would have been fun.
As pretty as Rebel Wilson looks in the movie, she doesn’t look that great in the movie poster.
It was more cute than laugh-out-loud funny.
I was surprised that my 18-year-old niece didn’t absolutely love it. When I asked her why not, she couldn’t put her finger on it. It just didn’t quite hit the mark.

FUNNY LINES:
* “It’s like The Matrix for lonely women.” – Natalie

INTERESTING LINES:

“I think people would have an easier time seeing you, Natalie, if you were a little bit more open.” – Whitney
“The Buddhists say when you meet someone and your heart pounds and your hands sweat, that’s not the one. But when you meet your soul mate, you feel calm.” – Blake (Liam Hemsworth)
Ghandi says true happiness is when what you do and what you say is in harmony with who you are.” – Blake

OTHER MOVIES LIKE THIS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

I Feel Pretty