The Proposal

A lot of people either love Sandra Bullock or they can’t stand her. I’ve rarely met someone whose opinion dawdles in the middle when it comes to her acting style and the kind of movies she makes, and she’s done a whole lot in the romantic comedy genre alone. For me, I’m always more entertained by her funnier roles, but on the flip side, I tend to enjoy Ryan Reynolds in more dramatic parts. The Proposal seems sort of a toss-up in that way, starring two actors who frequently play on either side of the coin. It could either be charming or full of second-hand embarrassment, and considering that the other romantic comedy Sandra Bullock was in this year was just short of a critical and box office hot mess, I braced myself.

Thankfully, I could stop holding my breath. The Proposal is a charming film. Sandra Bullock plays Margaret Tate, a high-powered and frigid career-woman who really just needs to loosen up. Ryan Reynolds plays her plucky assistant, Andrew Paxton, the down-to-earth, seemingly unlikely hero who lives in mild fear and harbors a whole lot of loathing for his boss, and of course he comes from a small town that inevitably plays the backdrop for the movie, removing Margaret from her cold, corporate world when Margaret cons Andrew into agreeing to marry her in order to escape deportation to Canada. Like many other films in this genre, The Proposal plays around with certain cliché roles, but it never gets so comfortable in tradition that it feels boring.

In fact, what makes The Proposal really work is that writer Pete Chiarelli’s script sort of recalls the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s. It’s not exactly Bringing Up Baby or Midnight – far from it – but the hijinks are centered around a marriage there, with confusion about who’s really pursuing whom, and moreover, what eventually convinces the audience that the two protagonists might have a shot at all is the fact that they learn to fake engagement so well. The story is convincing enough that I didn’t even notice that Margaret and Andrew hadn’t truly kissed once until the end of the film, possibly another nod to movies of yesteryear, often affectionately called “comedies of the delayed fuck.”

The throwbacks to classics wouldn’t fly at all, however, if The Proposal wasn’t actually any fun. There are several both ridiculous and honestly comedic moments, thanks to the leads, of course, but the supporting characters (played by a host of familiar faces, including Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, and Malin Ackerman) prove to be really active participants as well. Betty White steals the scene every time she shows up on-screen, playing what could be a stock, zany grandmother character, but there’s deftness to both her quirky and more emotional moments that make her performance heartfelt.

This is the balance the whole move strikes. The Proposal doesn’t take itself very seriously. The writing and acting feels self-aware enough to pull off a scene where Sandra Bullock sings “Get Low” by the Ying Yang Twins, but there are also enough ground moments peppered throughout to keep from shattering the suspension of disbelief. It isn’t quite the kind of movie audiences may want to see again and again, but it is one that’s satisfying for fans of the romantic comedy.

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Tagged as: ryan reynolds, sandra bullock

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