I Do ....maybe.....if no one else offers

Rating: 6/10 (1 August 2009)

PLOT: Successful B!tch is about to be deported and needs to marry her long suffering and easygoing assistant to stay in the country. They are stalked by an immigration officer and head up to Alaska to meet the grooms reasonably quirky family. Unlike frosty Alaska the Successful B!tches heart begins to melt. They fall in love. They fall out. They re- fall in love. They get engaged for real. END PLOT
If you have read this and are thinking - "Hey! You have totally spoiled the movie for me" then where the hell have you been living since the dawn of time? All romantic comedies must follow the same beats. It's the law, it's probably in the American Constitution somewhere so as with most rom-coms The Proposal doesn't rely on the story for originality or shocks but rather on the performance of the leads and supporting cast, as we already know before the teaser trailer has ended that they will in fact, live happily ever after.
Nowhere in cinematic history has the two leads in a movie been as preened, polished, groomed, styled and perfected as Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. They are barely human. They exist solely to be beautiful. Even if they are covered in mud or almost drowned in the Alaskan sea they still pull of dowdy in the most preened, polished, groomed, styled and perfected way.
Bullock and Reynolds have the advantage of being naturally charismatic and both can to comedy competently up to standard rom-com expectations. If the movie had starred Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey then you know you would be in for a tough ninety minutes.
The problem is Bullocks character, when in New York and in b!tch mode never really seemed that threatening. Is it possible for Bullock to be unlikeable? She lacked that extra bit of bitterness and sharpness that someone like Meryl Streep could easily just phone-in to her performance. This meant that the inevitable softening of her character Margaret didn't really pull any emotional punches as she didn't come off as particularly mean or distant in the first place. I am not heartless though, when Betty White (a name I probably should recognise but I honestly don't!) gave her a necklace which is a longstanding family heirloom it was quite sweet to watch her realise that she was an accepted member of the Paxton family.
Reynolds was just Reynolds, walking around with two out of his small selection of looks. This movie we were treated to "confused" and "smart ass". You can tell them apart by how far he opens his mouth and widens his eyes.
As with all rom-coms there is that one character who is there for the purpose of obtaining cheap laughs. He is usually a male most likely to be effeminate in nature or an in-your-face-homosexual, as, we all know - gay people are hilarious (apart from Will and Grace). The Proposal went the other way with Oscar Nunez' who stars (so I have read) in the American version of The Office playing the roles of the town stripper, shop assistant and vicar. The audience seemed to really enjoy his strip routine and were in hysterics when he popped up out of the blue to marry Margaret and Andrew (Reynolds) but me - not so much.
Apart from Bullock and Reynolds there is nothing more beautiful than rom-com New York. It is as preened, polished, groomed, styled and perfected as can be. It does look gorgeous but it was totally upstaged by Alaska. It turns out Alaska isn't all husky dogs, igloos and Sarah Palin (pitiful attempt at political humour) as the location was gorgeous and to be honest I would take small town Sitka over uptown New York any day of the week
I think that the only flaw in The Proposal is that I was there to see it. The audience in the packed out screen two were thoroughly enjoying themselves, laughing out aloud at the tiniest little thing whereas the most I could muster up was a smile at Gammys fake heart attack. I didn't sit there stone faced the whole time and I did enjoy the movie for the time filling ninety minutes that it was but I don't think I laughed once as I found nothing particularly funny in the entire movie.
The Proposal could be compared to an old repeat of Friends - you watch it for easygoing familiarity and comfort and not for high class and witty humour.
I would give it a generously watchable 6/10; you know going into the movie that you wont be watching anything remotely original but the charisma of Bullock and Reynolds give it an extra few points.