Deluded masses fall for Bullock's 'straw man'

Rating: 2/10 (7 August 2010)

For those who haven't seen 'The Proposal', the plot is rather simple. Faced with being deported to her native Canada, publishing business career woman Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), proposes to her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) that she marry him, in order to save her job and offer him a chance at promotion. The film has been compared to the 2009 dramedy 'The Devil Wears Prada'. Ostensibly, they both are about smug career women who are universally hated by their employees. But Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly is a multi-dimensional portrait based on a real person and Sandra Bullock's 'Margaret Tate' is a dopey caricature.
Many internet posters have condemned 'The Proposal' for its predictability. Sure enough, Margaret Tate eventually comprehends the error of her ways and finally softens up; but it's what happens before the predicable ending (the 'softening up') that relegates the film to the trash heap.
There was a time when Sandra Bullock actually showed some talent as a comic actor. Consider Miss Congeniality—the film was humorous due to the cleverness of the fish out of water premise. Sandra's FBI agent character had to adapt in the prim and proper beauty pageant world. And we were attracted to Sandra since her character was realistically tough and confident.
Not so in 'The Proposal'. You would think that a tough as nails editor-in-chief would know how to handle herself, especially in the rarefied world of the Paxton family—both Tate and the Paxtons are quite well off. But no, Bullock plays Tate as a buffoon, someone to laugh at. Somehow, being in the more rural atmosphere of Sitka, Alaska, is supposed to turn Tate into a total klutz. Not only is she unable to efficiently move her luggage or climb down a ladder but she also can't swim! While Miranda Priestly was arrogant and sometimes petty, she also had an aura of competency that made her an attractive and interesting character. Until her sudden epiphanies toward the climax of 'The Proposal', Tate is completely petty and never shows any sign of competence. Take for example, the idiotic scene where the family dog is snatched by the eagle; eventually Tate saves the dog but she's more concerned about her cell phone, after the eagle flies away with it.
It's easy to understand why Bullock would be attracted to the 'straw man' character of Margaret Tate. As the dictionary tells us—a straw man is a "fabricated or conveniently weak or innocuous person, object, matter, etc., used as a seeming adversary or argument." The shrewd businesswoman that she is, Bullock realizes how the masses (the film going public) despise such characters as Tate, since most of us have encountered such arrogant people one time or another during our employment history. In reality, such people never realize the 'error' of their ways and usually are rewarded for their amoral behavior (take Miranda Priestly in 'The Devil Wears Prada' as the perfect example). Since the masses can't face reality, they would rather indulge in wish fulfillment by cheering on the comeuppance of a straw man. And that's exactly what Bullock has done here—provided a buffoon that the masses can sneer at—while she knows full well that a real tough as nails editor-in-chief would never be anything like a Margaret Tate who "hates shopping and sightseeing" and hasn't had sex for a year and a half!
Before 'The Proposal' gets all mushy with the failed marriage ceremony and Ryan Reynolds rushing back to NYC where he convinces Bullock that he's truly fallen in love with her, numerous bloggers and internet posters have taken note of many other unfunny scenes in 'The Proposal', that crop up before the sentimental denouement. A few that come to mind include: Bullock and Reynolds clumsily falling over each other while in the nude, Bullock being entertained by an amateur Hispanic 'Chippendale's' stripper and Betty White playing the grandmother dressed up as a Native American, performing a bizarre Native American dance for Bullock (followed by her equally bizarre hip hop dance in response).
Despite Ryan Reynold's sincere performance as Andrew Paxton, the character also doesn't make much sense. Paxton supposedly holds himself up as being true to himself (as well as being an anti-materialist) when he rejects his father's demand to come back home and take over the family business. But at the same time, he's willing to compromise his values by accepting Tate's illegal (and immoral) proposal, in order to further his career.
Even if one's 'heart strings' are pulled by the sudden transformation of the lovers' affection for each other at the film's climax, the bulk of 'The Proposal' is 'comedy' of the lowest sort. And Bullock too has hit new lows by agreeing to be part of this enterprise. The next time around, she should look for more excellent screenplays. One is named "The Devil Wears Prada".