English Movie : Isn’t It Romantic

Genre : Romantic Comedy

SYNOPSIS

During the early 1990’s, when Natalie (Rebel Wilson) was a little girl, she watched
the romantic comedy Pretty Woman in her living room and fell in love with the idea
of love, her mom was the first to tell her that women “like her” don’t get to live in such
fairy tales. That early dose of reality turned Natalie into a successful woman, a New
York City architect who accepts that her best friend Josh (Adam Devine) has no
interest in her, chides her assistant Whitney (Betty Gilpin) for buying into the “lie” of
romantic comedies as an adult, and chafes at the idea of living inside any kind of a
fantasy.

It’s then inconvenient when an attempted subway mugging leads to Natalie suffering
a head injury, and waking up in a world far glossier than the one she’s used to. A
world where everything is bathed in soft light, everybody in New York City is as
friendly as can be, the air no longer smells of garbage, and Natalie’s world seems to
be perfect. Her crappy apartment is now a lavishly decorated penthouse with a
gelato drawer, she owns every piece of clothing she could ever want, and she’s now
the top designer at her firm.

But it starts getting even weirder, Donny (Brandon Scott Jones), the weed dealer
next door, is now her flamboyantly gay best friend. Blake (Liam Hemsworth), the
firm’s handsome top client, is now obsessed with her. Josh stumbles into a whirlwind
romance with Isabella (Priyanka Chopra), a model and “yoga ambassador”. As
Natalie soon works out for herself, she’s trapped in a PG-13 romantic comedy, and
the only way out is to give in to the idea that she could be the lead in her own love
story.

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INTERPERSONAL CONCEPTS

1) Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication is behavior and elements of speech aside from the

words themselves that transmit meaning. Nonverbal communication includes
factors of gestures, facial expressions, eye movements and contact, body
posture and many others. In the beginning of the film, when Natalie caught
her friend/assistant Whit watching a romantic comedy film at work, Natalie
made an expression with her face because she was surprised that Whit
would believe such fairytale. Natalie’s mum has taught her at a very young
age that she shouldn’t believe in those such fairytale love in romantic films,
which is why Natalie is always so realistic when it comes to romantic films.

Another nonverbal to include was eye contact. When Natalie was mugged,
she hit her head hard on pole and woke up in the emergency room. When
she woke up, her life completely changed as she was living in an unrealistic
fantasy where everything is perfect and everyone is kind. After she was out of
the hospital, she bumped into Blake and chatted for a while beside his
limousine. He then gave Natalie a wink when he was about to go off.

2) Para-verbal Factors

Para-verbal communication refers to the messages that we transmit through

the tone, pitch, and pacing of our voices. It is how we say something, not
what we say. There’s this scene in the film where Natalie went to work after
she got out from the hospital, the environment at the office was better and her
colleagues were a lot nicer to her than before. She then went to her
friend/assistant Whit to talk to her about how things have been going weird for
her, but the way Whit was talking to her was with this different tone,
specifically where she said “That’s literally the funniest thing I’ve ever heard”.

Other than that is volume. Right after Natalie was done talking to Whit, her
other colleague Josh startled her when he surprised her from behind and
shouting her name out loud.

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3) Verbal Communication

Verbal Communication is a type of oral communication where the message is

transmitted through spoken words. Here the sender gives words to his/her
feelings, thoughts, ideas and opinions and expresses them in the form of
speeches, discussions, presentations, and conversations. The effectiveness
of the verbal communication depends on the tone of the speaker, clarity of
speech, volume, speed, body language and the quality of words used in the
conversation. In the scene when Blake helped bail Natalie out of jail, Natalie
expressed how she feels towards the kindness that everyone has been
towards her. In words, Natalie said “I’m not special” to Blake, in a very sad
tone when she spoke about her thoughts towards the kindness she has
received.

In addition to another verbal communication, in the film, Blake asked Natalie

to go out and have dinner with him. When Natalie arrived, Blake instantly said
“wow” as an expression to show how amazed he is by Natalie’s beauty, she
was also wearing a lovely red dress to top it off. Blake also added “Natalie,
you look beautiful” in such an awe.

4) Channel

A communication channel is a medium through which a message is

transmitted from the sender to receiver. Face to face communication is used
most of the time in this film, but what I would like to focus on is the scene
when Natalie had a presentation in an office meeting to give on her
architecture ideas about a hotel to her boss and colleagues. Another is when
Josh and Isabella threw a party at Hamptons. It was not just a party that
people thought it was, it was actually a party held to announce to Natalie and
their friends that Josh and Isabella were going to get married the next day
after the party.

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5) Listening Skills

Listening is an active process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and

responding to spoken or non-verbal message. There are five types of element
in listening, which are selecting, attending, understanding, remembering, and
responding.

In the film, there are a few scenes that required them to use these elements.
For instance, there was this one scene when people oriented listeners were
used, when Natalie was upset because Josh was going to get married to
Isabella. Instead of going to the wedding, she decided to pack her bags and
leave, while she was packing, Donny her gay best friend came in her room.
So she told him how upset she feels that she could not make Josh fall in love
with her. Donny immediately tried to lift up her spirit by expressing to Natalie
about his life in a way to make Natalie understand that she shouldn’t just give
up and she listened to Donny with full emotion, and that changed her mind
about wanting to give up. Few moments later, Natalie ran to Josh’s wedding
to express her love towards Josh.

Furthermore, another scene was when Natalie arrived at the chapel where
Josh and Isabella was going to getting married at. When Natalie came in, and
crashed their wedding, she instantly without a doubt started to express how
she feels towards Josh. At that exact moment, all of Josh and Isabella’s guest
was listening to Natalie attentively, because they were all curious about what
she was going to say. But plot twist, she ended up telling Josh and the others
that she loves herself.

6) Self-Esteem

Self-esteem refers to a person’s overall sense of his or her value or worth

based on their perception of such things like skills, ability, talents, and
appearance. At the ending of the film, Natalie starts to realize her worth as an
individual. Natalie being in a medically induced coma fantasy life has made
her realize her worth, so she began to appreciate, love, and cherish herself
as her own being. That particular scene lies under the factor self-fulfilling
prophecy. Once she believed in herself more than others could, everything
changes for her in a good positive way just like she expected it to be. Besides

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 that, Natalie developing an honest friendship with her gay best friend Donny
in her fantasy dream has helped her a lot throughout the process of realizing
her worth. Donny has been there for her through her ups and downs. He gave
Natalie so many advices and he was there when Natalie needed him for
emotional support.

7) Primacy Effect

Primacy effect falls under the factor of impressions. Impressions are an idea,
feeling, or opinion about something or someone, especially one formed
without conscious thought or on the basis of little evidence. In the film, Natalie
uses the primary effect on Isabella when she first saw her at the park. Natalie
and Josh were strolling at the park. Out of a sudden, Josh sees that there
was a woman that was choking, he immediately went to help her, and it
happens to be Isabella. Natalie totally disliked her the moment she met
Isabella and even tried to stop Josh from going with her. One of the first
pieces of information that Natalie had gather from Isabella was that Isabella
was a model from a billboard, another is that Isabella is a total stranger and it
was unsual for Josh to be going off for drinks with a woman whom he just met
due to some cirmcumstances.

8) Selective Exposure

Selective exposure falls under one of the principles of selection in

interpersonal perception process. Selective exposure is a tendency to put
oneself in situations that reinforces oneself’s attitudes, beliefs, values and
behaviors. To put in an example, people are more likely to be in places that
they are comfortable in rather than being in a situation that is uncomfortable
to them. In the beginning of the film when Natalie has just arrive at work, she
was suppose to be presenting on her idea for her client’s hotel project.
Instead, she insisted in staying at her desk because she felt undeserving and
didn’t want to be in the meeting room until her friend Josh forced her by
pushing her into the meeting room.

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9) Being Self-Absorbed

Being self-absorbed is one of the listening barriers in communication. Self-

absorbed listeners are excessively concerned with their own needs. Self-
absorbed listeners are considered as selfish people. They are limited to
caring only about themselves. It is often difficult to sustain a conversation with
a self-absorbed person. At scene where Blake and Natalie was in their room
in Hamptons, Blake was giving Natalie a hard time because he wasn’t
listening to what Natalie wanted. Instead he wanted Natalie to only followed
what he wanted for Natalie. For instance, in that scene, he pitched Natalie’s
architectural ideas by himself, without Natalie’s consent. Then, he told Natalie
that he didn’t want Natalie to work anymore, and Natalie loved working.
Moreover, he even asked Natalie to change her name to Georgina because
he said that he didn’t think that he could accept her name in his circle. As a
conclusion, Natalie’s opinion towards what she wants was out of the picture
since Blake was extremely self-absorbed and only cared about what he
wanted.

10) Shifiting Attention

Shifting attention is when a person tries to do two things at once or focus at

two things at once. Some people have the gift to be able to multitask, and
some don’t. In the film, at scene where Natalie, Josh, and Isabella all went
karaoke together on their wedding night. Josh was shifting his attention
between watching his fiancee singing on the stage and also talking to Natalie
at the bar. When Josh was focused talking to Natalie at the bar, he didn’t
even realize that Isabella was calling him. Isabella even had to call him out a
few times, aften then only he shifted back his attention to her.

11) Relational Escalation

Relational escalation is the movement of a relationshop toward greater

intimacy. Movement from one stage to another represents an increase in the
amount of intimacy between two people. In the film, before Natalie was
mugged at the subway, she and Josh would usually just interact with each
other at the office. It was a casual banter interaction because the things that
they would talk about were always impersonal, and has no self-disclosure.

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 Though, Josh has tried many times to ask Natalie out to go on a karaoke
night with his friends/colleagues, but Natalie would always reject him. They’ve
never had any other conversations aside from casual banter at the office, so
she feels awkward if she’d go.

Moreover, at the end of the film. Josh and Natalie progressed from casual
banter to intimacy. When Natalie was in a medically inudced coma after she
was mugged, she had a dream where she was lliving in a romantic comedy
fantasy. That made her realize how she felt towards herself and towards
Josh. How Josh had always been the kindest to her no matter what. As soon
as she woke up from her coma, she immediately went to the office the next
day and went to see Josh. Josh showed her how he would sit at his desk and
look at her from a reflection at her desk. Then, they got together, and she
finally gets her happy romantic comedy ending.

12) Relational De-Escalation

Relational de-escalation is the movement that occurs when a relationship

decreases in the intimacy. This movement happened to Natalie and Blake
when she was in her romantic comedy fantasy. They started off good, but as
time passes by, Natalie’s feelings and perceptions towards Blake changes. In
the relationship, Blake is the one that’s more committed than Natalie. Natalie
has always been towards individualization when she was with Blake. She was
not as committed as how Blake was with her. As Natalie get to know more
about Blake, she realizes how self-absorbed Blake is and decided to separate
with him after he tried to control her life. He wanted things to be his way, he
didn’t care about what Natalie wants as he only cared about pleasing him.
Which is why their relationship de-escalated.

13) Workplace Friendships

Workplace friendship falls under interpersonal relationships at work. This

might be limited to a particular context such as lunch buddy, or working
together on the same project. In the film, Natalie and Whit are friends,
because Whit is Natalie’s assistant at work, but they are very close to each
other. Even though their personality are totally opposite from each other, they
make good friends for each other. It’s almost as if they complement each

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 other. Natalie and Whit never hang out with each other outside from their
workplace. Whit didn’t even went to the hospital to check on Natalie after she
was mugged. So their friendship is really just based on at their workplace.

14) Pseudoconflict

Pseudoconflict is one of many types of conflicts in our interpersonal life.

Pseudoconflict is usually triggered by a lack of misunderstanding and
miscommunication. To relate with the film in the scene where Blake shows
his trueself to Natalie when they were at the Hamptons. Blake inflicted a
conflict between him and Natalie when he appears to be controlling, and
acting superior towards Natalie. The conflict that he had brought up led to
their separation.

15) Pseudo-de-escalation

Pseudo-de-escalation is a part of an indirect strategy for ending a

relationship. It claims to have desire to re-estabish the relationship at another
leve;, but actually wanting the relationship to end. In the movie, when Natalie
was in her coma, where she got to live a fantasy life, her goal was to find
love. All these while, she thought that Blake was her only solution to getting
out of the fantasy as Blake was the first person to have asked her out for
dinner. Thinking that love is the only way for her to get out of the situation,
Natalie went along with what has planned for her. She went out for dinner
with Blake on a yatch, then went home together. In the morning, when Blake
wanted to tell her that he love her, she had hope that things would
immediately end, but it didn’t. Natalie didn’t like Blake, and she didn’t want to
be with Blake at all if it wasn’t for finding her solution to ending the fantasy life
she was living in when she was in a coma.

16) Same-sex friendships

In the film, female-female friendship between Natalie and Whit can be

described in terms of closeness and emotional attachment. The differences in
female friendships and male friendships is not in what is strived for in their
close relationships like intimacy, empathy, and trust, but in the means in
which their friendship goals are accomplished. Women are naturally more

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 applicable to show emotions and this translates into the friendships they form
as well. Natalie and Whit are the closest of friends, they are able to be
completely be honest with each other without having to worry about hurting
one’s feelings. They are there for each other for support, and when Natalie
didn’t came to work for a day due to being hospitalized, Whit missed her so
much, that when Natalie went down on the elevator, Whit literally ran down
the stairs to ask her where she was going because she felt very attached to
her.

17) Cross-sex friendships

Cross-sex friendships or opposite sex friendships are often not romantic. A

cross-sex friendship is a platonic relationship between an unrelated man and
woman. There are multiple types of cross-sex friendships, all defined by
whether or not each party has a romantic attraction to each other, or
perceives that the other is interested. In the film, Natalie and Josh had always
been good friends. Josh has always been a very supportive friend towards
Natalie, he would often encourage Natalie to step out of her comfort zone and
he would also try to help Natalie to feel more confident about herself. In a way
Josh was actually attracted to Natalie, but she never saw the friendship going
any more further than that in the first place until she was hospitalized and was
in a coma.

18) Self and Interpretation of Message

Self and interpretation of message are feelings of high or low self-esteem

affect how a person understand or react to messages. How self and
interpretation of message can relate to Natalie’s life is due to her lack of self-
esteem. Natalie is a successful architecture, but her lack of confidence
towards her own self affects how she reacts to how people treat her. Her
position at the company she works for is considered a high position, but due
to her lack of self-esteem, some of her colleagues take advantage of it. The
first thing her colleagues do when they saw Natalie came in the office is they
would ask her to take their leftover foods to the trash, and even call the
maintanence to repair the printer at their office, and none of it is her job. But
she just could not say no, because she doesn’t realize her own worth being.

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19) Self and Communication Style

Self and communication style affects a person’s self concept and self-esteem.
It can contribute to habitual ways of responding to others. In the film, at the
end of Natalie’s romantic comedy fantasy when she finally woke up from her
coma. She has become aware of her own self-esteem and how she lacks to
appreciate herself. The moment she walked in her office a day after she was
out of the hospital, her reactions were the opposite of how she used to react
to towards her colleagues that would take advatge of her. When she was able
to realize her own worth, she got the confidence to stand up and defend
herself from those people that would always treat her badly. Natalie even had
the courage to walk in the meeting room to briefly explain to her client about
her ideas on the client’s hotel project. She was able to present her ideas very
well and enthusiatically.

20) Beliefs

In self-concept, a person’s subjective description of who they think they are

relies on their own personal beliefs. One self beliefs are a structure of their
own understanding of reality. Most beliefs are based on a person’s previous
experience. In the movie, Natalie was taught by her mom at a very young
age, that she should not trust what the romantic comedies on the television
portrays. When a young Natalie watched the television, she was in love with
idea of love. As soon as her mom told her that reality is not like that at all, her
perceptions towards love changes as she grew up. That lesson and advice
from her mom did make her indepent, but she lacks elsewhere. When she
grew up with that kind of perception from her mom, she had develop a
negative perception towards love. That made her a bit bitter when it comes to
love, or romantic movies. When her friend Whit watched a romantic movie at
the office, Natalie couldn’t stop explaining to Whit about her opinion towards
movies like that, she even tried to get Whit to understand that reality is not
like that at all and Whit should not be too excited over movies like that.

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