Another Opposites Attract Comedy of Errors

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2009)

Sandra Bullock plays Margaret Tate, a high-maintenance dragon lady of a boss at a prestigious New York City book publishing firm, and Ryan Reynolds of "Wolverine" is her assistant, Andrew Paxton, who struggles to keep up with her outlandish demands. During its first quarter hour, "The Proposal" looks like a spin on "The Devil Wears Prada," but with a guy enduring all of the chaos the evil woman can inflict on him rather than a woman. Instead, "27 Dresses" director Anne Fletcher, who helmed "The Proposal," has really made an opposites-attract romantic chick flick where the tables whirl on the icy, businees only minded Bullock.
The chief complication in the newcomer Peter Chiarelli's screenplay is that Bullock's character is about to be booted out of the country by Immigration officials because she is a Canadian without U.S. citizenship. As a marriage of convenience, she springs the proposition onto her assistant, and he creates a laundry list of demands that she has no option but to accept. They fly off to Alaska to meet his parents. Betty White steals the show as the grandmother. Craig T. Nelson is cast as his dad, and Mary Steenburgen plays the mom. Reynolds has lots of issues with his father who believes that he is wasting his time in the publishing industry. Lots of funny scenes and some tearjerker scene. One of the funniest involves the Bullock character trying to save a cute little puppy from a predatory bird. The happily ever after ending that "The Proposal" provides will make you feel GOOD!