Movie Review: The Proposal

Margaret Tate (played by the lovely Sandra Bullock) is the editor-in-chief at a publishing company and Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds, delish as always) is her long suffering assistant. Margaret is a huge bitch and the whole office fears her. Ms. Tate is called in to meet with her bosses who inform her that she has failed to meet her work visa requirements, she is Canadian, so she is being deported. Enter Andrew, at the wrong time, and Margaret informs her bosses that she will not be deported because her and young Andrew are getting married. Horrified at first Andrew gets his head on straight and uses his boss's predicament to his advantage; he will agree to marry her if he is promoted to editor. She reluctantly agrees and they are off to the immigration office where they meet the INS worker from hell who always uncovers the fraudulent unions. They inform Mr. INS that they will be going to Alaska to announce their engagement to Andrew's family which also coincides with Gammy Annie's 90th birthday. Off to Alaska they go and hilarity ensues. In classic romantic comedy fashion Margaret and Andrew see each other in a whole new light.

I love romantic comedies no matter how ridiculous the premise might be. Not all of these rom-coms are good, but this one is fantastic. Anne Fletcher, director of 27 Dresses (a cute ode to bridesmaids) and Step Up (the best dance movie since Breakin' 2 in my book), does a great job of not making this film cutesy as most rom-coms tend to be. There is a great balance of sweet and sour and the story feels believable. Of course that wouldn't be so without the tremendous talents of Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. Sandra has spoken in past interviews about not wanting to do anymore romantic comedies but after reading the script to this one she could not resist. I am delighted that she did and hope that she will keep doing them because she is genuinely amazing in this genre. If you don't believe me watch While You Were Sleeping and Two Weeks Notice; but you definitely need to watch this movie if only to see Sandra bust out her ghetto side. It is HIGH-larious. Ryan Reynolds, what can I say, this guy can tackle any genre or script. I do adore him in comedies, watch National Lampoon's Van Wilder and Just Friends, but he has proven to be a powerful player in action films, watch him in Blade 3 and Wolverine. His and Sandra's chemistry is definitely the key to the success of the movie.

The film also has a great supporting cast: Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, and Malin Akerman; but I have to say the stand outs for me were Betty White as Gammy Annie and Oscar Nunez, Oscar from NBC's The Office, as Ramone. First Betty's character is referred to as Gammy, my son and niece refer to their grandma as Gammy so that endeared her to me even more. This woman is 89 years young and can still hold her own with the youngsters, she is comedy gold. As for Oscar's character, the guy is the jack of all trades in the little Alaskan town but my personal favorite of all the jobs is that he is the only male exotic dancer in town. Oscar turned what could have been a one-note character into a scene stealer.

This is a romantic comedy worth dragging your reluctant partner too a theater for or to just escape the summer heat.