A Wise Career Move

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2009)

In The Proposal Sandra Bullock finds herself in real dilemma. A workaholic executive in the publishing business, she's Canadian by birth and has failed to renew her visa. As she says, that's practically being an American anyway. Not good enough says immigration official Denis O'Hare and Bullock's boss Michael Nouri agrees. Sandra's got to do something fast.
Enter Ryan Reynolds her hunky young executive assistant who for better or worse has his career tied to her's. What's a guy to do, but go along with those other for better or worse words as she announces to the world that her young assistant is also her fiancé. It's not the most romantic of proposals, but he'll go along at least temporarily until INS stops looking and then they can get a quickie divorce.
But then to go along with the gag, Bullock and Reynolds fly to his home town which is Sitka, Alaska and at that point The Proposal becomes a combination of The Devil Wears Prada and Northern Exposure. Enter Reynolds family which is parents Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenburgen, grandmother Betty White, and a former girlfriend in Malin Akerman and a host of town characters that look like some of Rob Morrow's former patients. Bullock who lost her family early on and has none to speak of gets really comfortable with them and very comfortable indeed with Reynolds.
Sandra and Ryan certainly make a nice pair of leads. But I think acting honors go to Betty White who's pretty close in real life to the 89 year old granny she plays here. They also go to Denis O'Hare. He's a great example of a smarmy and officious bureaucrat people hate instinctively.
Ironic isn't it because Sandra Bullock is not a terrorist, in fact she's contributing quite a bit to the American economy here. The Proposal takes a strong look at our immigration laws which are incredibly out of whack in this country. Our strength as a nation was the immigrants who came here for a better life. Now we seem to discourage that.
As for Reynolds, it might be a wise career move he's making, but as it turns out these two really get to know each other and it might just work out after all.
The Proposal is a really nice romantic comedy, don't miss it while it is still in theaters.