Natalie (Wilson), an assistant architect, is on the record as not being a fan of rom-coms, so she finds it unsettling to be living in one. (She also hates that since her rom-com is apparently PG-13, her F-bombs are always “bleeped” by, say, a nearby truck backing up.) Her neighbor, Donny (Brandon Scott Jones), whom she barely knew yesterday, is now her constant companion, an over-the-top queer stereotype. At work, her friend Whitney (Betty Gilpin) is now her bitter enemy because women in the workplace have to hate each other in rom-coms. Natalie’s platonic friend Josh (Adam Devine) is the right man for her, but she doesn’t notice him because a hunky rich Australian (Liam Hemsworth) has inexplicably taken a liking to her. They met, of course, when his limo bumped into her on the street.<\/p>\n
The gags mocking rom-coms are astute and funny, perhaps cathartic coming from a trio of writers (Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, and Katie Silberman) whose credits include such genre exercises as How to Be Single<\/em>, Couples Retreat<\/em>, The Wedding Date<\/em>, and Set It Up<\/em>. Plot tropes are playfully teased, and director Todd Strauss-Schulson (A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas<\/em>) fills his magical, love-centered version of New York with visual cues: The attorney ads in the subway that used to say “INJURED?” now say “SMITTEN?”; the “See something? Say something” poster now reads “See someone? Say something!” and urges people to strike up conversations with potential soulmates; a map reveals that the island of Manhattan itself is now heart-shaped. The whole thing is under 90 minutes, and Natalie is in the rom-com world by minute 15 — quick and to the point, that’s how we like our high-concept comedies.<\/p>\n As enjoyable as the riffs on rom-com cliches are, the film’s best attributes are its positive messages for young women. Natalie, who sneers at rom-com happily-ever-afters, ends up with one herself, but it’s not because she finds a man; it’s because she learns to love herself. Wilson’s self-deprecating humor is relatable and endearing, not pathetic, and she supported by a keen group of actors (including Jennifer Saunders as her mother, seen in flashback). Come for the impromptu musical numbers and Pretty Woman<\/em>\u00a0references; stay for the cheerful lessons about confidence and self-esteem.<\/p>\n (Note: The funniest, sharpest, most savage parody of romantic comedies is still They Came Together<\/em>.) The premise of Isn’t It Romantic is similar to last year’s I Feel Pretty in that both involve blondes getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":11382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1381,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-movie-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/crookedc.png\")
<\/p>\nGrade: B<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
1 hr., 28 min.; rated PG-13 for language, some sexual material, and a brief drug reference<\/em><\/h5>\n
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