The Proposal- Supposes That **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (2 June 2010)

A wonderful premise soon evaporates into a very routine, ordinary film.
Bitchy book editor, Sandra Bullock, is an absolute ogre to deal with. She fires a subordinate and then learns that as a Canadian she faces deportation for not following through on paper work. She comes up with the brilliant idea of marrying her male secretary, who has long been suffering under her management.
This all sounds great but the film soon flounders when the secretary takes Bullock home to meet his family. Living in an area of Alaska, we have Craig T. Nelson who appears angry at the whole world, Mary Steenburgen, as his wife, who seems rather uncomfortable in her role and Betty White, the ex-Golden Girl, who as grandma does a native dance and feigns a heart attack to get her grandson to the airport after Bullock.
The one good point is the emphasis in the movie on family togetherness. Otherwise, it's rather routine grappling with the issue of 2 people falling in love under unusual circumstances. How many times have we seen that idea before?