Seeing the trailers, my thoughts on
this film went back and forth a little, but I was intrigued enough that, when a
friend asked me if I wanted to go, I agreed.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a slam dunk, it definitely
exceeded my expectations, and I had a good time watching it.
Natalie will happily enumerate the
many reasons she hates romantic comedies:
the unrealistic beauty standards, the way “getting a man” subsumes all
of a female protagonist’s other life goals and magically solves all her
problems, the token gay bestie with no life of his own, the cheesy
shoehorned-in music scenes – on and on ad nauseum. However, Natalie wakes up after a nasty bump
on the head to find herself trapped in the world of a rom-com. Working from the theory that she has to play
out the scenario in order to escape it – i.e., get someone to fall in love with
her – she braces herself for the inevitable schmaltziness but finds that this
world isn’t altogether what she expects.
As indicated by the trailers, the
film of course covers all the big tropes, such as ludicrous romantic gestures
(I laughed so hard when Liam Hemsworth’s character Blake wrote the digits of
his phone number onto individual rose petals and scattered them into Natalie’s
hat,) Natalie suddenly having an enormous NYC apartment and a fabulous
wardrobe, and a dramatic rush to stop a wedding. It hits some more minor points too, like
Natalie becoming “adorably clumsy” and her female friend at the office turning
into a bitchy rival, and I liked the detail that Blake is American in the real
world but has an Australian accent in the rom-com. If it were me, I also would’ve played more
with the idea that guys in rom-coms and their “sweet” gestures to “win the
girl” are in actuality stalker-ish and creepy.
Because a large part of the point is
commenting on tropes, it’s by design rather by-the-numbers. Especially in the rom-com world, most of the
characters are types rather than people, and most of the plot beats are
incredibly familiar. Still, its ultimate
trajectory takes it in some interesting directions, and what Natalie really
learns about love is a pivot from where the story initially seems to be
heading.
Rebel Wilson is well-cast as
Natalie. She’s an actress that can be
hit-or-miss for me, but I really enjoy her here. She portrays Natalie’s exasperation with and
sheer “are you kidding me?” reactions
to the rom-com world well, and I like how she plays Natalie’s vulnerabilities. Adam Devine is reliably-affable as Natalie’s
best friend Josh, Liam Hemsworth is a lot of cheesy fun as the hunky Blake, and
Priyanka Chopra is featured as well as an impossibly-perfect “other
woman.” I also like Brandon Scott Jones
as gay bestie Donny – the film definitely comments on that trope by laying the
stereotypes on thick, but it does
provide a few real moments that bring the character out of trope territory.
Warnings
Light sexual content, brief
violence, language, and drinking.
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