Isn't It Romantic (2019)

ISN’T IT ROMANTIC (2019)

By Ralph Santini - **

The opening of the most recent mainstream romantic comedy “Isn’t It Romantic” contains Roy Orbison’s classic romantic ballad “Pretty Woman” then we cut to a young girl watching the film itself inspired the 60’s classic that starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, somewhere in Australia. Her drunken mother (Jennifer Saunders) advises her that romantic comedies are not like real life and that happy endings are not worth her kid’s time. 25 years later she has ended up as a parking architect (Rebel Wilson, the star of this film) and after living those years she does agree with her mother that the cinematic genre isn’t basically worth it. Frankly I don’t blame Rebel Wilson’s character in this film, because in my opinion a huge percentage of romantic comedies (particularly since 1990) have gained a reputation of being formulaic and ridiculously clichéd. How possible is it for me can it be to make a good romantic comedy, I’m not sure, but this film contains a wonderful tribute to the nowadays tired genre and an effective performance by the Australian born funny woman, Wilson.

The story’s conflict however begins when Wilson is actually struck in accident after being mugged by an aggressive thief and later finds out that she is in a parallel universe where everything seems like a PG-13 rom-com and she gets involved with some characters she already knows from the more realistic universe, like Liam Hemsworth’s character is an Australian rather than an American, and she is in the rich side of New York rather than the poor side of New York, a gay neighbor of hers is a good pal rather than an indifferent neighbor, Adam Devine is falls in love with a yoga instructor (the charming Pranka Chopra), an old friend (the sexy Betty Gilpin) is an old nemesis rather than an old friend, and worst of all she can’t say bad words do to the fact that the world is PG-13.

Anyway, what I really like about the movie is how funny Rebel Wilson is here and how she always gets crazy the more she seems stuck in a romantic comedy. What really makes me indifferent, however is how the movie gets much more predictable ever since the universe Wilson’s heroine grew up with has changed and that in my opinion spoils this film. To those of you who live in the USA, Canada or Puerto Rico (where I continue to reside) my advice is to wait until it comes to streaming. To those of you live elsewhere feel free to see it until you might get tired, who knows, as long you be the judge of this film.