Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is a high-flying executive at a successful book company, she is what could be described as the boss from hell and is loathed by every single one of her colleagues. After learning that she is going to be deported back to her home country of Canada she hatches a plan to save herself from deportation… marriage.
She blackmails her hard working and loyal assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) into marrying her, if he marries her he gets a promotion so it’s a win win situation. What they aren’t aware of is that they will be intricately investigated into their suspicious engagement by the government, if their marriage is proved to be a scam then Andrew faces a $250,000 fine and five years in prison and Margaret will be instantly deported.
Andrew goes along with the scam and takes Margaret to meet his family in Alaska with the hope of convincing them of their engagement. The family quickly warm to Margaret who takes a little more time to adjust in the cold countryside however she eventually thaws out and warms to Andrew’s family. However when news of their fake engagement reaches the family they better be prepared for one hell of an almighty backlash…
I’m a big fan of romantic comedies but I do feel recently they seemed to have gone downhill a bit as a whole therefore although this movie appealed to me I didn’t exactly have high hopes for it, however, The Proposal turned out to be one of the best romantic comedies I’ve seen in a long
time.
Sandra Bullock has always been one of my favourite actresses so she was a big part of the motivation for seeing this, she manages to play such diverse roles from her serious role in Crash to the geeky but loveable Gracie Hart in Miss Congeniality. There’s no doubting that she’s a brilliant actress and one of the most unique and gifted actresses in Hollywood today. I loved her in this film, she really manages to do the film justice and I think without her this wouldn’t have been the funny and endearing film that it is. There were several scenes based around her that I laughed out loud at, I thought to myself that if it were any other actress doing what she was doing I wouldn’t have found it half as funny. There was one scene where she’s chanting, on first thought imagined that it was going to be overly silly and witless but it turned out to be one of the funniest scenes of the movie and one that I couldn’t stop laughing at.
I’m not a huge fan of Ryan Reynolds, granted he is good looking and there was a part in the film where he takes his shirt off which enabled me to warm to him a little bit (who knew he was hiding that body). He’s quickly becoming known for his romantic comedies after starring in Definitely Maybe and Just Friends. I think Ryan Reynolds is good as a supporting role, as a leading man I think his credentials are questionable. He did ok in The Proposal as the leading man but I think that’s because he was far outshined by the superior Sandra Bullock, I believe that without her talents to hide behind his role would have seemed to be obviously defective instead of just understatedly average! One thing I did like about Ryan Reynolds’ character was that he was relatable, everybody can relate to having a boss that they despise whether or not she’s as bad as Margaret, this was one thing that Ryan Reynolds had going for him, you knew that the audience could appreciate how much he hates his boss.
I liked the story in this film as I thought it was different to your usual run of the mill romantic comedy, the characters were also good, Sandra Bullock’s especially. In the first couple of scenes her character of Margaret reminded me of Meryl Streep’s character as the bitchy boss in The Devil Wears Prada. I don’t know of many actresses that can pull off the bitch role and still remain likeable to the viewers, Sandra Bullock is one of those rare actresses that has a certain charm about her enabling her to be liked even if her character is an absolute bitch or if the film is completely dire. With a Sandra Bullock film you always know that there’s going to be something you’ll like.
The storyline, like so many romantic comedies is quite predictable, there are moments that aren’t predictable though which meant that this kept your attention for longer but as a whole the movie is predictable. I saw Friday Night With Jonathon Ross on Friday night (believe it or not) and Sandra Bullock was a guest star, she even gave away the ending of the film itself and explained that it’s not about where they end up it’s about how they get there, I think this sums up the film perfectly.
I like the way that the film is angled more towards the comedy aspect than the mandatory and predictable romantic aspect, this made the film a lot more enjoyable and even though you know feelings are going to develop between the two leads it’s done subtly throughout the film which was very well executed. The film managed to maintain a balance between visual and aural comedy which no doubt will please everybody’s tastes in comedy. The film has a very witty script and although Sandra Bullock harbours most of the comedy on her own, Ryan Reynolds does come out with a few funny one liners. The script remains witty and sharp throughout the entire 108 minutes of screen time.
I was massively impressed with this film, it is definitely one of the most enjoyable romantic comedies that I’ve seen in a long time, I went into the cinema with the misconception that this was going to be another bland, predictable and silly romantic comedy but it totally changed my opinion straight away. The pair are really good together and share some great chemistry even if Sandra Bullock steals the show from her co-star. This is a film that I would highly recommend for any rom-com fan.
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How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
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Super review, well written, informative and very helpful to the consumer.
obscuredbykep 06.07.2009 18:07
Never heard of this before!
DixieChick10 05.07.2009 18:13
I Love Ryan Reynolds. Before he got into films he stared in a pretty much unknwon tv show called two guys, a girl and pizza place, pretty much a piece of crap tv show but he shone and his acting skills as the leading man were just brill. I love him in deffo maybe, and have yet to see this, I'm not hugely looking forward to it so will prob just wait for dvd. Kirsty x
Jul 5th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
