By: Elena Donatone
Rom-Coms always make young and not so young women dream about the perfect love story with the perfect man. The female protagonists in these movies are always very attractive and they so happen to have a perfect job and friends, whose lives only boil down to being the sidekicks in the heroine’s story.
Unfortunately real life is different and Rom-Coms tend to set unrealistic standards and goals for women and teenagers. And that is exactly what Isn’t It Romantic? (2019) brilliantly explains.
The movie focuses on the not-so-perfect life of not-so-perfect architect Natalie (Rebel Wilson).
When Natalie was a child, her mother told her how unrealistic Rom-Coms are and that love is not a fairy tale, especially for girls like her!
The woman believed that to the point that it has become her mantra as an adult. Natalie hates Rom-Coms and everything they stand for!
But when she hits her head after a man attempted to rob her in the subway, she wakes up in the hospital… in an alternate world where she is in fact the protagonist of a Rom-Com!
The alternate world is so different from the one Natalie is used to. New York is suddenly very clean, full of glamorous and colourful shops around, and flowers seem to appear everywhere she looks!
Doctors and police officers are always suspiciously attractive, and her apartment is now perfect and straight out of a magazine! Natalie can even hear herself as a voice-over, dramatically explaining what she feels and thinks!
"New York doesn't smell like shit anymore. Everything smells like lavender."
The movie’s original concept combined with Rebel Wilson’s energetic and hilarious acting make Isn’t It Romantic? a great watch for sure! But what I was most impressed about is the reflection it gives the viewers on the genre that is Romantic Comedy.
While Rom-Coms are very popular and we all love to watch one from time to time, the movie highlights how toxic they can be, especially for women, but for men as well! Additionally, how wrong the messages they spread can be!
Natalie, in her new Rom-Com life, ends up with Donny (Brandon Scott Jones), a camp gay “sidekick”, whose life and goals revolve around her and nothing else. Natalie even sarcastically asks him if he has a job, as he seems to always be available when she needs him.
Donny: "God, what was the theme of this wedding? Easter at Elton John’s house?"
Natalie: "Donny! How the hell did you get here?"
Another aspect that is highlighted in the movie is how two female colleagues in a Rom-Com need to be enemies all the time.
How many times have we seen a movie where two women who work together were aggressive towards each other and in a competition? That’s what happens to Natalie when she finds out that in her alternate universe, her best friend whom she never got in a fight with before, is suddenly her worst enemy at her workplace. And for no apparent reason!
"And then, like, in those movies, when there are two women in the same workplace, they have to be like mortal enemies."
One of the biggest stereotypes discussed in Isn’t It Romantic? is surely the one of the male protagonist of Romantic Comedies.
The handsome, rich and apparently perfect Blake (Liam Hemsworth) is Natalie’s love interest at first. What could be wrong with him after all? He is basically a God on earth! But what Natalie learns is that he is in fact very manipulative and he doesn’t care about her. So, the perfect and stereotypical Rom-Com hero turns out to be a disappointment for Natalie. Although he seems perfect and he takes her on a typical fancy and movie-like date around New York City, on a yacht and a limousine, in reality he is quite shallow and fake.
Blake: "You are beguiling."
Natalie:"Did you just learn that word, because you tend to say it a lot?"
But the most important theme discussed is surely the hype Rom-Coms have always built around the perfect love story that will change the female protagonist’s life and make her finally happy and complete. As Natalie rightly says, that is a wrong message to send to viewers.
Love is surely great and can make us feel so happy, but it shouldn’t be portrayed as the only thing that will make the female protagonist complete. She should be fulfilled and content because of her own life and achievements as well!
And that is what Natalie finally learns before she leaves her Rom-Com world, that turns out to be a dream she had after hitting her head.
Before you love somebody else and before thinking about finding your “soulmate”, you should learn to accept and cherish yourself for who you are, without constantly putting yourself down. Natalie was quite harsh with herself at the start of the movie, thinking no man could ever love her or even look at her because she wasn’t as pretty as the protagonists of Rom-Coms.
But she finally learns that looks is not all men care about, not the ones that really love you at least! And she needs to admire and love herself first!
Although she gets together with her best friend Josh (Adam DeVine) in the end, which is a classic Rom-Com stereotype, Isn’t It Romantic? is surely a great example of how life really is like and it takes a realistic look at Rom-Coms and what is often wrong with them!
"You can search the entire universe and never find a being more worthy of love than yourself."
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