THE PROPOSAL
THE PROPOSAL has Vancouver’s Ryan Reynolds in yet another romantic comedy this time teamed up with the queen of romantic comedy, Sandra Bullock. Their keen comic timing works well off one another for the first half of this generally well written and for the most part well paced story. Bullock as Margaret Tate is the boss from hell who has cracked New York’s glass ceiling as a shaker at a large publishing company. Reynolds as Andrew Paxton is her simmering lackey who maintains his role as a sycophant in hopes of one day moving up to a job as an editor. Although Margaret has made herself indispensable to her American employers the American Government finds her dispensable as a Canadian with an expired visa. The irony for Reynolds actually being a Canadian working in the USA aside, Margaret flashes on the solution and orders Andrew to marry her. However, far from being the answer to her prayers it’s actually the answer to his as he starts leveraging his new found position of power. The tables really start to turn on a trip to Alaska for the 90th birthday party for Grandma Annie (the always game Betty White). Although at this point things degenerate to a series of clichés here we meet the parents Grace (Mary Steenburgen) and Joe (Craig T. Nelson) and it become clear why Andrew would stand for the abuse he’s taken for so long working under Margaret. Of course with a romantic comedy called The Proposal you know there’s a double meaning, half of which has nothing to do with business.