Movie review: 'The Proposal'

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock (Credit: Sam Emerson/Touchstone)

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2 stars (out of four)

“I stopped doing them six or seven years ago,” Sandra Bullock said recently, regarding romantic comedies. “I just stopped. They’re terrible. They’re bad. They’re not funny, so they shouldn’t be called a romantic comedy because most of the time they’re not romantic.”
So true. It’s frustrating, then, that “The Proposal” turns out to be a disposable example of the very same genre. Co-starring Ryan Reynolds as the beleaguered Man Friday to the fearsomely mean book editor played by Bullock, the film offers the occasional reminder of Bullock’s skill and timing. (My favorite: Bullock’s startled flinch at the altar, when the presiding church official starts in with “We have GATHERED HERE ...” a little too loudly.) But Peter Chiarelli’s script is pure formula, guided by clearly notated, heavily underlined story beats from “Green Card” and “Two Weeks Notice” and many others.

“The Proposal” reworks “Two Weeks Notice” with the genders switched. Bullock’s Margaret Tate is known as “it,” not “her,” around her publishing house full of ninnies and bowers and scrapers. Assistant Andrew (Reynolds) loathes her ways, her cutting, soulless but well-preserved ways. (I don’t want to get into the whole plastic surgery question, but I did prefer Bullock’s previous look, the one that looked a little less like someone wearing a Sandra Bullock mask.) Margaret, a Canadian living in New York, has visa troubles and is threatened with deportation.  She strongarms Andrew into marrying her—quickie divorce to follow—under the suspicious eye of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services caseworker played by Denis O’Hare.

Set over a long weekend, director Anne Fletcher’s film mostly takes place in Sitka, Alaska, which is played, unconvincingly, by coastal Massachusetts. The occasion is the 90th birthday celebration for Andrew’s grandmother (Betty White in one of her patented randy-senior turns),  and while Andrew struggles with being home and getting reacquainted with his ex (Malin Akerman), the ladies in Andrew’s family take reluctant Margaret under their wing. The script relies on the growing sexual chemistry between Margaret and Andrew, which we never really see, even when they’re accidentally encountering each other in the nude.

It’s not terrible, but honestly, “not terrible” is too low a bar for a rom-com.  Problem is, there’s not much fun to be had  watching the wicked witch of the Upper East Side get her comeuppance and thaw out and fall in love.

The problem is not the acting. The problem is what these actors are required to say and do. It’s getting so that midway through one of these passable-but-so-forgettable-I’ve-already-forgotten-the-title rom-coms, I would honestly pay for actual jokes. A buck a laugh. I’d pay it.  Who’s with me? And what was the name of that new Sandra Bullock movie again?

mjphillips@tribune.com

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