Inc410 Movie Review.docx

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. Selfabsorbed listeners are excessively concerned with their own needs. Selfabsorbed 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 selfesteem. 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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