The Proposal: who cares if it isn't hilarious, it has a puffy white puppy

Rating: 6/10 (19 June 2009)

Once again, the trailer is not quite about the movie. Matter of fact, once again, the funniest scenes are in the trailer. You probably are braced for a bad review. See!?!?! That's what foreshadowing does to one's expectations. I'll let this review do more for you than the trailer did for the movie.
If you are going to the movie to see Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds or Betty White, I do not think you should be disappointed in their performances. Betty White was fun to watch as was Mary Steenburgen. They all pulled off a good job for their parts. A couple of the performers pulled off a little more than you might expect from this movie, but then, they did get a PG-13, just a close shave from an R.
The movie starts off as good as I expected. I got plenty of laughs from the role reversal, you know, the woman is the boss while the man is subservient. I think I read one review where it almost seemed like this could have been a Rock Hudson and Doris Day movie. It's true, that comes across rather clearly. It made for some good laughs. Unfortunately, the laughs are few and far between after that observation. I found myself paying more attention to character contradictions as the movie went on(and on and on and on).
Apparently, going home is not always a good idea. That's when it all changes for me. Daddy issues, family warmth (or the fear of it), weird dancing grandmas, old needless relations and multiple sociological intrusions and infractions just tore at the heart of potential for this movie that I thought was Bullock's "welcome back". I still love Sandra Bullock and I do not think the problem with this movie had anything to do with her. I only know that a certain director has soured my taste for anything that director may do in the future. For me, the movie came across as a brand new jig-saw puzzle with pieces missing right out of the box. And a couple scene/time-line edits were inexcusable and sloppy, dismissing the viewer's skills of observation.
If you are going because the trailer leads you to believe this is hysterical humor, you will be saddened by what you see. If you go to get a few chuckles added to a smattering of character development(perhaps I should say "distortion"), then you might enjoy this. I for one wonder why Bullock's and Reynold's parts weren't played by Whoopi Goldberg and Jack Black. The mere idea of those two playing the misdirected characters had a better chance of keeping me in tears of laughter instead of disappointment.
I give it a 6 out of 10 for early laughs, Bullock, Betty White and a cuddly puffy white puppy.