The Proposal
I’d say this is your typical boy works for girl/girl needs boy to marry her/boy goes along with it/then they fall in love romantic comedy, except that’s not a typical premise for a romantic comedy.
“The Proposal” is very much your typical romantic comedy, however, with Sandra Bullock as a bitchy boss at a publishing company who’ll be deported (to Canada) unless she can get assistant Ryan Reynolds (an aspiring book editor) to agree to marry her. It’s not hard to see why Immigration doesn’t buy it- Reynolds’ animosity is palpable to everyone, as is Sandra’s narcissism, especially with a weekend and Reynolds’ family’s home in Alaska (with the usual rogues gallery of familial stereotypes) that turns into an impromptu wedding.
There’s some cute touches (the IMing employees), and Bullock is surprisingly good at playing this self-absorbed workaholic (with the character set up, sans words, at the outset). And Reynolds is a natural charmer as the put-upon assistant asked to go above and beyond the call of duty. But the film- which sometimes plays like a forced riff on “Meet the Parents”- on the whole is blandness personified, with the usual fish-out-of-water gags and jokes we’ve seen before. Actually, the film follows a lot of the same beats as Sandra’s 1995 hit “While You Were Sleeping,” just without that film’s easy charm and tender heart.
Though Bullock (who’s rarely looked hotter) and Reynolds can carry the film a long way (especially in the end credits montage that provides the film’s biggest laughs), the film’s undeniable MVP is Betty White as Reynolds’ 90 year-old grandmother. She has a veteran’s mastery for sitcom laughs tinged with a light edge that the film typically lacks while going through the motions. That she can steal the movie away from her younger leads shows she hasn’t lost her touch yet. Can we see more of her please? Maybe in a better movie?
