The Proposal Movie Review - The Movie Messenger

Movie review of The Proposal, starring Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock.

The Proposal Movie Review

By Anthony J. Gomez

The Proposal is the newest comedy from Anne Fletcher, who last directed 2008’s 27 Dresses.

The movie is about Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), assistant to executive editor in chief of a book publishing company, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock). Margaret is feared by all at her company. She struts her power wherever she goes, and those who know her take notice, as well as fear for their jobs. Her assistant Andrew puts up with her every word. Not only that, he’s been doing it for three years. Any normal person would have quit in one. That’s what makes Andrew different.

Margaret is notified she is going to be deported to Canada, so she quickly makes a decision and forces Andrew to marry her, or else he’ll lose his job. Most would think it shouldn’t matter to Andrew if he was fired, but Andrew wants more than anything to become an editor and have his book published, so he agrees.

The government doesn’t believe their union is real, and tests their love. The awkwardness between the two is comedic, and they do a real good job hating each other. To prove themselves, Andrew takes Margaret to visit his family in Alaska, and it is there that the two test the waters of their new, forced relationship.

Don’t get me wrong people, I went into this movie predicting the outcome. Romantic comedies like this come a dime a dozen. You guess what happens when the odd couple spends quality time together… that’s right, they slowly fall for one another. Questions can be raised like, “if Andrew hates his job and has been doing it for 3 years, why the hell would he start falling for this woman? After three years of hating her, it doesn’t make sense!” Funny thing is, Andrew’s father in the movie, played by Craig T. Nelson of TV’s Coach fame, asks this very question.

It seems as if the movie is very self aware and doesn’t take itself too seriously, and because of this, I think it works and has a certain charm about it, but I’m still on the fence with it. There are some comedy bits in here that are kind of out of place and feel from a different movie entirely (let’s just say they involve a dog and a falcon, and another involves a little old lady dancing in the woods), but strangely, it all works somehow.

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock seem to have better chemistry hating each other than falling for each other, maybe I just dont buy their growing crush since Reynolds character absolutely hated his boss for three years, and now then he becomes crazy about her all of a sudden… and of course, the movie ends the way I thought it would. Yeah, you know what happens, just look at the movie poster.

Although predictable, and kind of goofy, The Proposal has some kind of charm about it that I did enjoy, and although I don’t highly recommend it, I’d say if your date doesn’t wish to see The Hangover or Year One, I’d say go ahead and see it. You’ll be entertained for the night, but you’ll probably forget about it in a week. It’s popcorn entertainment at its core. Oh, and Betty White plays Andrew’s Grandma, Annie… out of everything this movie had to offer, she stole the show.