At once homage and a send-up of romcoms, “Isn’t it Romantic” (“Romantic”) adapts two distinct tones and attitudes that shouldn’t mesh, but do so with almost effortless precision. Making fun of something while admiring it is tough; just look at every horror parody ever made. The first “Scream” movie totally nailed it, but everything like it since has failed in a big way.
In many ways an easier target than horror, romcoms are also something of a cinematic sacred cow, at least to those (mostly adult females) who swear by them. This could be why no one has yet tried to truly skewer them (unless you count the 2006 disaster “Date Movie”).
Delicate Balance
The trick here is a delicate balance: Being smart without showing off, being ironic without getting mean; being funny without getting too esoteric or simplistic, and never lingering on one scene for too long or wearing out your welcome. At a brisk 89 minutes, “Romantic” goes by in a flash while leaving the audience wanting more. It was the best romantic comedy of 2019 by a long shot.Having been a rock-solid character and supporting performer for the better part of a decade, Rebel Wilson gets her first shot as a lead playing Natalie, an Australian-born architect living in New York City. Although moderately successful at her job, Natalie is also frequently treated like a doormat by some of her underling co-workers, and is missing the requisite backbone to fight back.
Natalie lacks anything even remotely resembling a love life. Her sole positive male connection is her office mate Josh (Adam Devine—think a less grating version of Jack Black), who isn’t shy about his romantic interest in her. As a bristling, aloof, glass half-empty type, Natalie hasn’t a clue to Josh’s feelings. She doesn’t even seem to mind that she’s alone. To the filmmaker’s credit, Natalie’s plus-size figure is never made an issue, at least in a negative way.
In a manner almost identical to that in “I Feel Pretty” (2018) and “What Men Want” (2019), Natalie gets a knock on the head, and it changes her world. Greeted by “Hot Doctor” Todd (Tom Ellis), she wakes up in a hospital room she describes as “Williams Sonoma.”
Fantasy World
When discharged, she walks the New York streets, which are lined with endless flower arrangements, and everything smells of lavender. Every man whom Natalie passes gives her a come-hither look, none more forward than Blake (Liam Hemsworth), a billionaire developer client, who only days before flippantly demanded she get him coffee.Not long before Blake begins sweeping Natalie off her feet, she realizes she’s now living in a romantic comedy fantasy world. To make matters worse, it’s a PG-13 rated world. In one of the movie’s funniest moments, Natalie, in seething frustration, unleashes a torrent of F-bombs; none are audible, thanks to some carefully executed sound masking.
Karaoke Rules
The narrative hits full stride when Isabella hosts a party in the Hamptons. The highlight is Natalie’s show-stopping karaoke performance of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” In interviews leading up to the release, director Todd Strauss-Schulson stated that the overwhelming positive test screening reactions to this scene led him to add another karaoke (Madonna’s “Express Yourself”) at the start of the end credits. In retrospect, it really wasn’t necessary.
Having appeared together in two of the three “Pitch Perfect” flicks and his “Workaholics” TV series, Ms. Wilson and Mr. Devine have a built-in chemistry going in and it only gets better here. Ms. Wilson christened them the new “Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.”
In the end, the success or failure of the film (like any other for that matter) is what’s on the page that counts. The lion’s share of credit needs be lavished on the screenwriting team of Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, and Katie Silberman. They had the unenviable task of keeping everything light, sharp, and poignant at the same time, and never once did they falter.
