The Proposal (**½)

Directed by:
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White, Malin Ackerman, Oscar Nunez,
Seen: June 26th 2009

**½ Out of ****

The Proposal is a very funny comedy that’s also romantic. I say this because the awkward romance and everything surrounding it is mostly used as setups for the next bit of funny. And I’m OK with that. The romance is not the normal kind of unlikely, it is more than that. Andrew (Reynolds) is Margaret Tate’s (Bullock) assistant, and has been for three years. Margaret leads by fear, and the entire office of around thirty people physically run to their desks to look busy whenever she comes into the building (not a healthy working environment I’d say...).

When Margaret is pulled into the director’s office, she asks Andrew to come get her, for something urgent, in ten minutes. But the directors have bad news for Margaret, she is about to be deported because her temporary visa is expiring, and voila, in walks Andrew, her loyal (some would say lapdog) assistant, and she has a solution – they are getting married. Reynolds’ reaction to this alone is worth seeing this movie, it is priceless. Margaret threatens Andrew’s job if he doesn’t comply, so along he goes. Immigration finds this sudden change of direction slightly perplexing, and start investigations. This prompts Margaret to worm herself into Andrew’s family weekend in Alaska she had forced him out of to work the whole weekend just earlier that same day.

In Alaska Andrew’s parents, Grace (Steenburgen) and Joe (Nelson), have built up an empire of sorts, and even in the midst of this, they remain very human, which contrasts strongly with Margaret’s automated boss personality. Obviously, and oh so slowly, things start changing between Margaret and Andrew, and the romanticism starts creeping into the comedy. The problem I have with the film regarding this is that the two do not actually spend enough screen-time together to convince the viewer that they can fall for each other, things do not gradually grow, they just seem to step up every now and then, in undefined increments.

Make no mistake, the film is very entertaining and it turns quite dramatic nearing the end, but you can’t help to feel just a slight bit confused at the end, did they really just fall head-over-heels in love? It seems that way, but how, did I miss a bit (did I even go to the bathroom during the screening?)? If you prefer your films to make you think a bit, maybe you should find something else, but for light, Sunday afternoon entertainment, you won’t go far better than The Proposal’s great humour.