The Proposal: You've Seen This Before

The Proposal: You've Seen This Before
By Pete Misiak
WXYZ-TV Entertainment Reporter


If The Proposal were a song, it would have to be called "Everything Old is New Again." The plot to this romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds was a bit moldy when Cary Grant and Irene Dunne did it back in the 1930s, yet Sandra and Ryan seem to be having so much fun in their roles that you don't mind watching the chemistry between the two as the familiar plot unfolds.

When high-powered book editor Margaret (Bullock) faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she’s actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew (Reynolds), whom she’s tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family (Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White) and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. With an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the precarious consequences.

So that’s it. There's no meet-cute in The Proposal. After a weekend over which they are hateful and awful to each other, they fall in love for real. Which, of course, you can see coming a mile away. Sandra and Ryan will unexpectedly find themselves naked in each other’s presence; she confesses that she does not know how men’s bodies work--say what? Finally, the woman he hated the day before will tell a sad story about something bad that happened to her while she was a teenager, and then it’s all love and roses and sweetness and chocolate and fluffy clouds. And that, I guess, makes everything all better.

But, The Proposal generates enough good will to soften even its harshest critics. Betty White, playing the almost-90-year-old grandmother, still has the acting chops to steal every scene she's in.

Director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses) doesn't serve up many surprises, but she allows her cast the room to explore, and that's almost enough. The ending is weak and flounders after the fun that came before.

Sandra Bullock lovers will be happy to see her fully engaged in a role that suits her and paired, at last, with her comic equal: Reynolds.

The Proposal
Rated: PG-13
Running Time: 107 minutes


Pete Misiak is an award-winning news anchor and reporter at WJR-AM 760 and is also a member of WXYZ.com's Web Team. A former Big Band singer with Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians, Pete earned membership into Actors' Equity Association in 1982 and has appeared in over 60 productions as an actor and performer.