***Spoiler Alert!!!***

Valentine’s Day is an important holiday to most, and a very important holiday to some (ahh to be in love)!!! But the real main event worthy holiday that occurs in February? GALENTINE’S DAY! THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR! To celebrate this past GALentine’s day I grabbed my two besties and we went to the movie theatre to watch the new rom-com that was released that day, “Isn’t it Romantic?” starring Rebel Wilson. Oh. My. Goodness. It was amazing and I’m here to tell you why. It was just the movie I was looking for without even knowing it! Don’t get me wrong, I love love and I love my boyfriend, but girls are awesome and we definitely need to be rooted for more often, and that’s exactly what this movie did.

Rebel’s character, Natalie, is an architect living in a less than adequate apartment, gets pushed around like an unwanted white elephant gift at her work, is completely blind to the adoration her male best friend Josh (played by Adam Devine) has for her, and has a pretty bland outlook on life, romance specifically. This is a very specific case, but I think in one way or another we’ve been there in some way, shape, or form. There’s a brief intro at the beginning that shows these viewpoints being instilled in her at an early age by her mother, and you can tell that she grew up believing this and as a result, believes this to be true about life as an adult.

The big plot idea is Natalie got hit pretty hard in the head and is transported to a world where her life IS a rom-com. The world of New York where she lives is magically transformed to a pink-filled, amazingly scented, wonderland where everyone is beyond kind and men begin to notice her presence and even compliment her. She is so flabbergasted and immediately tries to find a way out, humoring us all as we know from the outside looking in things that she doesn’t. Natalie comes to the conclusion that in order to get out of the rom-com she’s in, she has to get heartthrob Blake (Liam Hemsworth) to fall in love with her.

I was thinking to myself, “Okay this will be funny, but still a basic love story.”

But she DOES get him to fall in love with her and guess what, it didn’t work!!!! We know it was the best friend Josh all along! She knows it! He knows it! We all know it! It’s the plot twist my heart was ready for!!! But Josh is in love with some other girl and Natalie has to crash the wedding, the queen of all rom-com moves that she’s not looking forward to doing. This whole section of the movie Rebel just shines, her humor is so authentic and her character made me laugh hysterically. Rebel was born to act in comedies.

When it comes to the moment we’ve all been waiting for, Natalie bursts through the door of the wedding (after slo-mo running against her will), we are all sitting there expecting her to profess her love to Josh…..and…..SHE DOESN’T!!! SHE PROFESSES HER LOVE FOR HERSELF!!!!! UGH WOW MY HEART!!!! I don’t know if it’s normal to cry during a rom-com, but I definitely did. As someone who has struggled with self-love in the past, celebrating self-love on a day solely about love is just what I along with society needed. It was the perfect moment and I loved every second. I wish they had developed on this more, maybe bring in more of her past. With the movie being only an hour and a half long, they definitely had the time to do so. She gets to return back to her reality after falling in love with HERSELF, kicks butt at her work, gets with Josh, and finally has the guts to stick up for herself. We. Love. A. Girl. Boss.

This movie Isn’t your typical rom-com, it’s not what you expect, and it is the perfect love movie to watch if you’re over the whole notebook vibes. I would seriously recommend this film, I am a sucker for a good laugh. My overall rating is A-, I just wish they had gone into depth more on her “ah hah” moment towards self-love. It’s still in theatres right now so go see it!!

Love, Giving You Hale

Written by: Haley Walker