Line #94 Film/IsntItRomantic


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/isnt_it_romantic.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Natalie's life has become a romantic comedy. And she hates every minute of it.]]
3
4	''Isn't It Romantic'' is a 2019 RomanticComedy starring Creator/RebelWilson, Creator/LiamHemsworth, Creator/AdamDevine and Creator/PriyankaChopra.
5
6	Natalie (Wilson) is a woman disenchanted by love, who, after getting knocked unconscious, finds herself in a rom-com and she's the leading lady! Although she despises romantic comedies and the implications that come with them, she figures that she has to get to the end of the rom-com to escape it -- which means getting someone to fall in love with her. She turns her sights on rich asshole Blake (Hemsworth), who is smitten with her in the rom-com world, and confides in Josh (Devine), one of her closest friends who, thankfully, seems largely unchanged...
7
8	This film is also a {{Deconstruction}} of tropes, characters, narrative styles and imagery of romantic comedies.
9
10	----
11	!!Tropes:
12	* ACappella: When a waitress accidentally knocks the cord out on the karaoke machine, Natalie is forced to sing this way.
13	* AccidentalHandHold: Josh and Natalie both grab for the same item, sparking in Natalie the realisation that she might have feelings for him.
14	* AdventuresInComaland: Natalie is stuck in a romantic comedy while she's in a medically induced coma for 18 hours in real life.
15	* AffectionateParody: Lovingly makes fun of rom-coms.
16	* AllJustADream: Natalie was in an 18-hour coma, during which she imagined that she was in a rom-com.
17	* AlphaBitch: In the alternative universe, Whitney becomes this to Natalie.
18	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Natalie believes everyone to be this to her, due to her low self-esteem.
19	* AndYouWereThere: Natalie's friends and acquaintances are recast as romcom characters in her comatose fantasy. Isabella, in particular, is based on a billboard outside Natalie's office window she enviously compares herself to, because she believes Josh stares at it all day, [[ObliviousToLove without realizing he's looking at her.]]
20	%%* AwesomeAussie: Two, a rarity in an American film.
21	* BetaCouple: Josh and Isabella become a couple, but are on the background in comparison to Natalie and Blake. [[spoiler:Josh and Isabella's wedding becomes the climax of the film.]]
22	* BettyAndVeronica: Both love triangles in the rom-com fantasy have a set-up like this; even lampshaded when Josh mentions to Natalie that he never thought they would end up in relationships with such rich, beautiful people.
23	** In the Josh-Natalie-Blake triangle, Blake is the wealthy, persistent, stranger Veronica to Josh's loyal, normal, longtime friend Betty.
24	** In the Natalie-Josh-Isabella triangle, Natalie is the normal longtime friend Betty to the model-beautiful Isabella's rich, haughty Veronica.
25	* BigBeautifulWoman: Even when Natalie is meant to be “unkempt”, she’s still gorgeous, and has two guys tailing after her in the romcom world. After all, she is played by [[MsFanservice Rebel Wilson!]]
26	* TheBigDamnKiss:
27	** Parodied. When Natalie and Blake kiss, [[HollywoodKiss rain falls down, the camera zooms out, and the music swells.]]
28	** [[spoiler: Natalie’s kiss with Josh.]]
29	* BiggerIsBetterInBed: Blake is noted to be well-endowed.
30	* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Natalie, Isabella and Whitney, respectively.
31	* CampGay: Donnie in the romcom universe, played up due to the mocking nature of the film. [[spoiler:Normally, he's more of a StraightGay.]]
32	* CareerVersusMan: [[spoiler:Natalie breaks up with Blake after the latter steals her idea and tries to cover it up by saying that she won't need to work when they're together. Natalie, however, loves her job.]]
33	* CaughtInTheRain: Natalie and Blake kiss passionately while it's raining.
34	* CharacterNarrator: Natalie suddenly overhears herself narrating her own thoughts.
35	* ChekhovsLecture: Everything that Natalie hates about rom-coms, which she tells Whitney, happens.
36	* ClicheStorm: Deliberately invoked and PlayedForLaughs. Nat lampshades every single romcom trope in the book in a three-minute rant early on and every single one of them occurs in the romcom she finds herself in. Even the soundtrack reflects this.
37	* ClingyJealousGirl: Per "bad romcom" rules, Isabella is this over Josh and Natalie’s friendship, as she views Natalie as a threat to her relationship with Josh.
38	* ComicalOverreacting: The moment Natalie realises...
39	-->'''Natalie:''' My life’s become a mother[[SoundEffectBleep beep]] romantic comedy! '''AND IT’S [[SoundEffectBleep BEEPING]] PG-13!!!'''
40	* CostumePorn: All the clothes transform into bright, stunning pieces.
41	* CryIntoChest: Natalie freaks out that she’s going crazy, and while Josh hugs her to calm her down, she gets teary.
42	* CuteClumsyGirl: Natalie. It’s somewhat of a running gag. While it's awkward in real life, it just becomes cute when in a rom-com.
43	* DanceOfRomance: Josh and Natalie dance in sync together.
44	* DancePartyEnding: "All I need is a cheesy musical number."
45	%%* DeadpanSnarker: Natalie and Donny.
46	* DeconReconSwitch: The movie cheerfully mocks all the stupid aspects of rom-coms, but at the same time it ''is'' a rom-com, and has the same core message that Whitney ascribes to the genre at the start of the movie: that you, yes ''you'', can find true love and have a great life as long as you don't give up on yourself.
47	* DerailingLoveInterests: In the romcom world. [[spoiler:After spending the whole time seemingly being a Prince Charming-type who woos Natalie, Blake later steals her plans, which makes her dump him.]]
48	* TheElevenOClockNumber: The film closes on a spectacular song-and-dance number.
49	* ExtremeDoormat: Natalie is an unusual example, since she's a tough-talking cynic who seems like she's not about to take any crap from anyone... but whenever someone pushes, she inevitably gives in. She gets better in the end, though.
50	* FiveFiveFive: When Natalie scatters Blake's flower petals on the floor, each with a telephone-number digit written on it, they naturally form a number that has this.
51	* FlatCharacter: Parodied. Every character in the rom-com world other than Natalie and Josh are shallow caricatures that barely seem to exist outside of embodying some stereotype.
52	* FourthDateMarriage: Josh and Isabella prepare to get married after knowing each other for a few days.
53	* FreudianExcuse: The movie frames Natalie's hatred of romcoms to have started when her mother told her that it would never happen to girls like her.
54	* FriendsRentControl: Parodied. In the real world, Natalie lives in a cramped apartment that is realistic for a New York architect. In the romcom world, her job is now a wellpaying RomComJob and her apartment is spacious and lavish.
55	* GainaxEnding: Back in the real world, after putting her life back on track, Natalie realizes she is in a romantic comedy and goes into a musical number joined by everyone else from the film in the streets of New York. Plus, Donnie is now acting like his alternate universe self.
56	* GayBestFriend: {{Reconstruction}} with Donny in the romcom world (but not in the real world, where he is firmly Natalie's apathetic StraightGay neighbor). As a gay best friend he has no life or character besides supporting Natalie's love life...until the end when he explains that his flamboyance is the result of building up his self-confidence following a bad relationship, and he wants Natalie to love herself too.
57	-->'''Natalie:''' He's setting gay rights back like a 100 years.
58	* GrandRomanticGesture: Subverted. It isn’t what Natalie or Josh do, but the fact that they’ve been there all along for each other.
59	* {{Hatedom}}: InUniverse, Natalie is a one-woman hatedom. As Whitney dryly points out, for someone who hates rom-coms she's certainly spent a lot of time thinking about them.
60	%%* HeldGaze: Isabella and Josh.
61	* HugAndComment: After playfully touching Josh, Natalie comments on how fit he is.
62	* {{Hunk}}: Blake is ripped, and described as extremely attractive ("[[Creator/TheCW CW]] hot").
63	* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: Played with. Natalie complains that a guy like Blake would never notice her. However, she also apparently can't imagine ''any'' guy noticing her. [[spoiler:She's wrong about that part, in both worlds.]]
64	* IWantSong: “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” slowly turns into this, as Natalie realizes that she also wants love.
65	* JustFriends: Natalie feels this way about Josh, at least initially.
66	* JustJokingJustification: Played with. When Natalie realizes that she's in love with Josh, but both of them are with other partners, she comments that "maybe we should switch". Everyone clearly expects that to be a joke, but she just stares with a completely straight face, until Josh suggests that she's just joking.
67	* KaraokeBondingScene: Parodied when Natalie is asked to do karaoke at her good friend and potential love interest Josh's pre-wedding party. She starts out pitchy and unsure, but slowly gains confidence, [[SummonBackupDancers backup dancers]], and [[EverythingIsAnInstrument instrumentation]]; her rendition of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" involves the entire bar and turns into an IWantSong about how she actually wants love. Note that this is ''parodied'' as the whole thing occurs in Natalie's comatose fantasy about her life as a romantic comedy; she herself is in awe at how it escalated into a CrowdSong.
68	* LadyInRed: Natalie is wearing a body hugging dress with peplum in a bright red during the musical sequence.
69	* LampshadeHanging: Natalie is aware that she's stuck in a PG-13 rom-com and comments on every unrealistic aspect as it comes up.
70	* LongingLook: Josh gives Natalie lots of missed gazes.
71	* LoveAtFirstSight: Isabella and Josh stare into each other’s eyes and are head-over-heels.
72	* LoveEpiphany: Natalie realizes she loves Josh and tries to stop his wedding. [[spoiler:However, she doesn't "break the curse" until she becomes comfortable with loving and accepting herself.]]
73	* LoveIsInTheAir: After Natalie wakes up, she finds herself in love with a guy, after being sworn off from guys.
74	* LoveTriangle:
75	** Natalie has two guys in love with her, Josh and Blake.
76	** This then gets flipped, with Natalie and Isabella trying to win over Josh.
77	* MaidenNameDebate: [[spoiler: Blake not only wants her to change her last name, but also her first name because "it doesn't work in my circle" and suggests Georgina. This is the final straw in their relationship.]]
78	* MeetCute: But of course.
79	** Josh namedrops this trope at the beginning, when Natalie interrupts two minor characters about to have one in the park.
80	** Blake and Natalie meet [[note]]technically for the second time, but it's the first time he notices her[[/note]] when she almost gets run over by his limo.
81	** Josh and Isabella meet when he notices her choking and does the Heimlich on her.
82	** Subverted with Natalie and Officer Hansom. He saves her from throwing herself in front of a train and it looks like this, but it turns out that he only did it so he can arrest her for entering the subway without paying for a ticket.
83	* AMinorKidroduction: The film opens with a young Natalie watching ''Film/PrettyWoman''.
84	* MomentKiller: Two people have a Meet Cute in the park and Natalie obliviously plows her way between them on her way to work. Josh calls her out for disrupting the moment, but it's actually subverted since they're continuing their conversation in the background.
85	* NoFourthWall: Natalie is the only character aware that she is in a movie.
86	* ObliviousToLove: Natalie fails to realise that Josh is in love with her.
87	* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Natalie thinks she's still trapped in the rom-com world when she wakes up to another hunky doctor. Thankfully, he's just an actor, and the real doctor comes in to talk to her.]]
88	* OldFashionedRowBoatDate: The park is full of them when she and Josh goes for a walk there in the romcom world.
89	* OneHeadTaller: Blake to Natalie.
90	* TheOnlyOneITrust: Natalie talks to Josh about some things in the rom-com world, but considering that he’s a leading man now, she cant tell him everything. Luckily, her gay best friend Donny fulfills that role.
91	* PinkIsFeminine: In the final musical sequence, Whitney and Isabela both wear pink (albeit in different shades and styles).
92	* PortmanteauCoupleName: Parodied InUniverse. One of the reasons Natalie thinks Josh and "Iz" should not get together is that the relationship would have to be called [[UnfortunateName "Jiz."]]
93	* PrecisionFStrike: The way Natalie realizes that she's returned to her normal life is when she can shout the F word without it being drowned out by a random loud noise.
94	* PullTheIV: Played with; an early, subtle sign Natalie is in a RomCom is when she rips out her IV and it's like it was merely taped on. When she wakes up in reality and tries the same thing she winds up with a spurting hole in her arm.
95	* RaceForYourLove: Of course. And [[MundaneMadeAwesome it’s in slow motion!]]
96	* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Natalie learns in the end that Josh wasn't staring at a billboard model, but Natalie herself all along.]]
97	* RomComJob: Natalie is an architect, a role ordinarily reserved for a male lead. In the real world she's treated with little respect and works in a frumpy office setting that affords her only a small, run-down apartment, but after hitting her head she finds herself in a modern, high-tech office, with her apartment not only roomy but full of expensive clothing.
98	* RunningGag: Loads.
99	** Natalie consistently getting hit by something.
100	** Swear words being drowned out by a noise.
101	** [[Music/VanessaCarlton "A Thousand Miles"]] playing.
102	** "Beguiling".
103	* SceneryPorn: The rom-com world is filled with bright colours, and flowers in every place.
104	* SexyDiscretionShot: Actually keeps Natalie from having sex since every time she starts, this happens and she wakes up the next morning.
105	* SheCleansUpNicely: Natalie and Whitney, who are made up to look dowdy (think [[Series/TheOfficeUS early season Pam Beesly]]), but in the rom-com universe they are clearly beautifully made up and attractive as their actresses Creator/RebelWilson and Betty Gilpin.
106	* ShirtlessScene: Blake, after spending the night with Natalie, walks out of the bathroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist.
107	* ShoutOut:
108	** Natalie's outfit when she arrives in the rom-com world is a copy of Creator/JuliaRoberts' one in ''Film/PrettyWoman''. In-universe it's meant to have come from a hospital's lost and found.
109	** Includes references to ''Film/MyBestFriendsWedding'', ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'', ''Film/HowToLoseAGuyInTenDays'', ''Film/TwentySevenDresses'' and ''Film/ThirteenGoingOnThirty''.
110	* SickeninglySweethearts: Natalie is grossed out with the way Josh and Isabella are all up in each other.
111	* SoundEffectBleep: What happens every time Natalie tries to swear in the rom-com world due to its PG-13 rating.
112	* SpontaneousChoreography: Twice. Lampshaded during the karaoke scene, but [[DancePartyEnding played straight at the end]] of the movie.
113	* PetHomosexual: Natalie suddenly finds herself with a gay sidekick. She's not amused.
114	* StraightGay: Donny's real life counterpart, who proceeds to mock the entire CampGay stereotype with his partner when Natalie expresses surprise at his sexuality.
115	* SummonBackupDancers: True to form, three women randomly appear behind Natalie and dance.
116	* TrueBlueFemininity: Whitney is seen wearing a lot of blue in the real world in the first part of the movie, along with her [[PinkIsFeminine pink pussy blow blouse]] has light blue florals, this is meant to contrast with her AlphaBitch persona who wears black power suits.
117	* WakeupMakeup: A fact of life in the rom-com world, of course.
118	* WrongGuyFirst: [[spoiler: Coma Blake turns out to be a jerk who doesn't truly love Natalie, but Josh does.]]

Context Film / IsntItRomantic