"the Proposal" Review

Sitting down in the theater to watch The Proposal, I felt like I was reaching withdrawal. After all, it's been a few months since I saw <i>Ghosts of Girlfriends Past</i>. I was in need of a feel good romantic comedy. And who better to deliver one that Sandra Bullock. I found exactly what I wanted and needed in The Proposal.

While some people don't like romantic comedies, or "romcoms," because they're too predictable, perhaps that's exactly why I like them. I know what I'm getting. I'm getting a story about two unlikely people that fall in love against the odds, face an obstacle, then give us that happy ending that we desire. Basically all you need to complete that formula are some good stars and a well-written story.

The story is a good one here, and one that leads to some fun, if not obvious humor. Margaret (Sandra Bullock) is an orphaned Canadian book editor living in NYC. She leads a pretty lonely life, filling it up with work commitments. Everyone she works with is afraid of her, snapping their heads back around to the inside of their cubicles when she walks by, and tipping each other off with "The witch has left the broom." notices.

Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) is Margaret's executive assistant. He's dreamed of being an editor all his life and moved to NYC to do just that, as he makes his way up the corporate ladder. Count him among the people that are afraid of Margaret, as he even drinks her favorite coffee every day, just in case he spills hers, as then he can give her his. He has plans to go home for the weekend to celebrate his grandmother's 90th birthday, but Margaret makes him cancel the plans to stay and work for her instead.

Margaret's bosses find out from immigration that her work visa has expired, and that it'll be another year before she can reapply, so she thinks quickly, telling them that she and Andrew are going to get married, and they tell her to work it out with immigration. Andrew obvously balks at this, but she blackmails him, saying he'll lose his job. She tells immigration she is going with him this weekend to announce it to his family, meaning she'll have to go with him to rural Alaska. He gains the upper hand in it now, and blackmails her back, making her promise to promote him to editor if he does it.

It's in Alaska where the jokes really open up, thanks to that whole "fish out of water" feeling of Margaret's, and Andrew and Margaret's attempts to convince his family as well that they plan to marry. Once Margaret sees the huge family compound Andrew hails from, she asks why he never told her he was some type of "Alaskan Kennedy."

They also have Andrew's family members perfectly cast. Mary Steenburgen plays his naive, but loving mom who just wants to see him more often, Craig T. Nelson plays his cold-hearted dad, who's disappointed in his career choice to be an editor, and the marvelous Betty White brings her perfect time to the role of 90-year-old Grammy. I don't care how many times I saw the previews for this, I cracked up each time at White feeling up Bullock, saying "it's like an Easter Egg hunt," and her lines  only continue in the movie, asking if she prefer to be called "Margaret or Satan's Mistress." The scenes of Grammy and Andrew's mom taking Margaret to see the only exotic dancer in town leave you watching and laughing through your fingers.

Yes, it's predictable, and you know exactly how and where and why it will end, but it's such a fun trip to Alaska, that you just don't mind going there. The writing and actors to pull off the great lines leave you smiling as you leave the theater, and for a little while after that as well.