The Proposal

In a romantic comedy, chemistry between the leads can either sink a movie, or help it rise above the often contrived material. For evidence of the second example, see The Proposal. Here is a movie that sounds like it was written by a committee. There's not a single moment we can't predict, a single gag we can't telegraph from miles away, and not a single plot development we're not aware of before the characters are. And yet, I found myself smiling, due to the chemistry of the lead stars. They're likable, and so are the rest of the cast, who bring a lot of warmth to the movie. The Proposal is completely lacking in originality and has few big laughs, but it still manages to have a lot of charm.

The stars at the center are Sandra Bullock, a long-time veteran of the romantic comedy, and Ryan Reynolds, a relative newcomer to the genre, but he's had some success with last year's Definitely, Maybe. They play the standard movie couple who start off hating each other, but slowly grow to love each other during the course of the story. It's something that seldom happens in real life, but happens all the time in films like this. Bullock's character is Margaret Tate, who starts the movie as a vicious Ice Queen boss at a publishing company, who strikes fear into the hearts of her employees just by walking down the hall. Anyone who has seen a Sandra Bullock performance knows that this is a bit of a stretch, and indeed, these early moments where we are supposed to hate her don't work. She obviously tries, but she fails, especially when Meryl Streep's "evil boss" performance in The Devil Wears Prada is still fresh in our minds. Fortunately, the contrived plot kicks in soon enough, and Margaret slowly starts to thaw out and become more likable as she is forced into a fake marriage with her long-suffering personal assistant, Andrew Paxton (Reynolds).

The situation is that Margaret is originally from Canada, and her Visa has expired. The law is threatening to deport her back home, where she will lose everything. Thinking quickly, she tells the Immigration Official that Andrew and her are engaged to be married, so she can get her Green Card. The two blackmail each other as they work out the arrangement of the sham marriage, and soon, they find themselves flying out to Sitka, Alaska to meet Andrew's family. So far, so uninspired. But then, a funny thing started to happen. We meet Andrew's family, and I was slowly drawn into the likable characters, and the evolving relationship between Margaret and Andrew. The family is played by some great actors. Craig T. Nelson plays Andrew's father, who has a lot of issues with his son, and doesn't quite believe the marriage announcement from the start. The way the screenplay handles the character is a little smarter and more honest than normal, however. He doesn't exist simply to be wrong about everything all the time, and he genuinely cares about his son, despite their differences. The other main members of the family are Andrew's mother, played by Mary Steenburgen, and grandmother, played by character actress Betty White. While they have little to do with the actual plot itself, they still bring a lot of charm and warmth to their roles.

The Proposal shares a lot of similarities with the movie that launched Bullock's career in romantic comedies, While You Were Sleeping. Both are films about a woman who is forced into a relationship with a man she hardly knows, and comes to love him and his family over time. This is not as good of a movie as that one was, but is still leagues better than a lot of the stuff we've been getting this year like New in Town or Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. While a lot of the jokes could be funnier, there are a couple scenes that made me laugh, such as when Margaret and Andrew try telling the story of how he proposed to her in the first place, and they both try different angles on the same story. It's the performances that drew me in, however. The writing is nothing original, but the actors help flesh the characters out. We believe Margaret's transformation, because when Bullock looks conflicted, or shares a warm moment with Andrew's mom or grandmother, we believe it. We may see it coming, and we've seen it before, but it's done well enough that we don't mind seeing it done again.

That's really the key here. There's nothing in particular that stands out about the movie itself. But director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses) lets the cast do what they do best, and it lifts it out of the hole the derivative screenplay by Pete Chiarelli could have dug for it. Watching The Proposal was almost like a battle of wills. I didn't want to fall for it, because I knew the movie was manipulating every step of the way, but I eventually did. It succeeds as a crowd-pleasing date movie, and is harmless enough. If it had sharper wit, or maybe something new to show us, I could recommend it even more.

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