Isn't It Romantic
Warner Bros. | Release Date: February 13, 2019 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekFeb 13, 2019
It’s ridiculous, and it’s wonderful. Falling in love is stupid like that. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiFeb 12, 2019
The movie is hysterical, and at just under 90 minutes, the gag never wears thin. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyDana SchwartzFeb 12, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic pulls off a sweet sleight-of-hand trick as a rom-com-within-a-rom-com, mocking all of the classic rom-com tropes while still letting us indulge in them. The movie is having its gourmet cupcake and eating it too. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandFeb 12, 2019
Every trope, twist, and trick of the genre is up for skewering in the comedy, but the film keeps things light and smart, never dipping into darkness or crass jokes. It’s funny because it’s clever, but it’s also never cruel. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshFeb 12, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic walks the line between subversive and sendup. It gleefully makes fun of the well-known tropes of romantic comedies, while also satisfying our desire to delight in said tropes. Read full review
80
TheWrapFeb 12, 2019
The best gag comes from rom-com world’s cloying PG-13-ness. Read full review
75
Washington PostJane HorwitzFeb 13, 2019
A visually and verbally ingenious sendup of romantic comedies that wears its candy heart on its sleeve. Read full review
75
The PlaylistKimber MyersFeb 13, 2019
It pokes fun at falling in love on screen, but it’s smart and sweet enough make us fall for it as well. Read full review
75
Original-CinKim HughesFeb 13, 2019
Wilson is beautiful but far from typical Hollywood beautiful which underscores the film’s wink-nudge absurdity. She’s also funny as hell, delivering deadpan with Aussie-approved aplomb. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrFeb 13, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic stays pretty surface level, which makes for a fine and pleasurable viewing experience, but doesn’t exactly do anything to show that rom-coms would be better if the best friends had more of an inner life, for example. In fact, it just kind of redeems the formula in some ways. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeFeb 12, 2019
It’s a feature-length in-joke for fans who will always pause if My Best Friend’s Wedding pops up during a lazy Saturday afternoon channel-surfing session, but who ultimately consider rom-coms a slightly shameful guilty pleasure. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryMay 21, 2019
Isn't It Romantic has charm to burn, in a light-hearted send-up of romantic comedies that playfully turns all the familiar tropes into a lively vehicle for Rebel Wilson. The movie owes a thematic debt to "Groundhog Day," but mostly -- in a film so conscious of conventions that it niftily bleeps its foul language -- it's a heckuva lot of fun. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriFeb 13, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic has plenty of fun toying with various familiar elements and sensibilities, but its deconstructions also feel like resurrections. Read full review
67
Vanity FairRichard LawsonFeb 12, 2019
I wish the movie was just a tad sharper, took a little more time to really clarify its stance on this whole social-sexual-commercial world of romantic aspirationalism, to make its commentary and its humor really sing—and sting. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireFeb 13, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic tries to have its red velvet cupcake and eat it too, and though it’s tasty and enjoyable while you’re watching it, you’ll realize how hungry you are for something heartier soon after you’ve come down from your sugar high. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldFeb 12, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic both spoofs rom-com conventions and embraces them; it’s a tricky balance, but it doesn’t fall off the wire. Read full review
60
Little White LiesPatrick SproullAug 28, 2025
The satire isn’t quite as sharp as you would hope though. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerMar 1, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic had us at hello but loses its spell when it has to develop its plot. Not as smart or sharp as you’d hope, it still delivers a lot of fun for those who can’t resist a bad Katherine Heigl flick. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 14, 2019
Thanks to the comic tornado at its center, Isn’t It Romantic is still your best bet for a Valentine’s date at the movies. You could do worse. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenFeb 12, 2019
For all its winking jabs, this blend of giddy bits and teachable moments eventually follows the same old playbook. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeFeb 12, 2019
In a fun, glossy take down of age-old genre tropes, Rebel Wilson wakes up in an alternate universe, dominated by romantic comedy cliches. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesFeb 14, 2019
Rarely if ever has a film ostensibly about and informed by cinema been so thoroughly un-cinematic...And un-emotional: that spark of love is also missing in action. Perhaps this is why the film chose to drop the question mark from its title. If it had been posed as a query, the answer would have been, no, not nearly enough. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 14, 2019
The screenplay by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, and Katie Silberman nails the mechanics of a rom-com, even if it takes Wilson’s delivery to drive the lessons home. Scenes are succinct and the movie comes in at 88 minutes even with a tacked-on song-and-dance video at the end (as a nod to the film’s wildly successful karaoke-bar sequence earlier in the film). Read full review
50
The Film StageJohn FinkFeb 14, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic misses several opportunities to find humor in its absurdity with low stakes, too little of a comic payoff, and only a few cursory observations about gender roles and norms in these universes. Read full review
50
SlateInkoo KangFeb 13, 2019
Natalie might protest the whitewashing of New York by rom-coms, but Isn’t It Romantic trots out multiple supporting characters of color whose sole roles are to make the white protagonist look good. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithFeb 13, 2019
As the film becomes increasingly reliant on predictable narrative tropes, it evolves into the very thing it set out to parody. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonFeb 13, 2019
In conceptual terms, the movie has more in common with Scream, in that it’s an examination of genre clichés (in this case romantic comedies) that both satirizes and embraces them. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Chandler LevackFeb 12, 2019
The two actors at the centre of these high-concept comedies are good, giving and game, but they’ve been cut a raw deal by trite material that belittles their very existence. Read full review
50
The New York TimesBen KenigsbergFeb 12, 2019
The film’s reliance on conventions even as it snickers at them gives it the faint air of a con. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 12, 2019
While there’s virtually no risk that “Isn’t It Romantic” will make you to love your favorite rom-coms any less, Strauss-Schulson hasn’t figured out how to have his cake and eat it, too — to look down on the very confection he’s so busy peddling. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 12, 2019
There’s not much kick to Isn’t It Romantic, even after it goes over the rainbow. It gets by, and commercially it may well be a modest hit — but has more to do with Valentine’s Day timing than the film itself. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 13, 2019
The problem isn’t that it pokes fun at romantic comedies, it’s that it itself isn’t a terribly good one. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 12, 2019
Wilson, letting the strain show the way a hundred other funny folks expected to “save” a flimsy comedy built around them have before her, has never seemed more out of her depth. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 12, 2019
Isn’t It Romantic isn’t romantic, and it isn’t funny. It’s a bad idea stretched to feature length, a gimmick picture that never gets past its gimmick and never grows into something better. It runs 88 minutes and runs about 80 minutes too long. Read full review
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