Movie # 60........................."The Proposal"

Movie #60 "The Proposal" was a pleasant surprise. Aside from them glaringly filming this movie on the east coast and then painting the mountains in the background and passing it off as Alaska, I found the couple here (Bullock and Ryan Reynolds) to have lots of chemistry (heard from an interview that they've been good friends for years and you can tell they like and respect each other) and to be equally strong and most importantly to me to be believable ---- the hardest obstacle to get over in a romantic comedy is the gradual falling in love part and I was happy to see that there's a lot of film time spent on that here and the actors are good enough and likable enough that we believe they are moving from respect to care to finally love. Yeah, we are supposed to believe it all happens in a weekend, but that's the problem with the time element and once again, they are just that believable so the audience doesn't bother with the problem. Then, the director made sure to have a whole cast of people that were really good at what they had to do (Mary Steenburgen (mom), Craig T. Nelson (Dad) and the ubiquitous Betty White (Grammie) who incidentally does this character so well, that if they ever gave AA's to comedies, she just might get a nod at a nomination (but they don't). And the bad guy is a stitch too (he's a tony winner from broadway, the very competent Dennis O'Hare), playing the immigrations service guy. There's usually only one or two romantic comedies that work per year "Dan in Real Life", "Lars and the REal Girl" are two that come to mind in the past couple of years,and you can add this to the short list. It works, and it works because it's a good script , believable characters, chemistry between the two leads, and good, good comic timing from the actors. It's not easy, yet they make it look that way. Good for Reynolds and Bullock! and the female director Anne Fletcher. (I liked her other one, too, "27 Dresses" but not near as much, but then that was Heigel's fault in that one)






Average rating: 3.991
I gave it 4 stars
The Proposal
(2009) PG-13
When she learns that she's in danger of losing her visa status and being deported back to her native Canada, overbearing book editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) forces her put-upon assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), to marry her. Directed by Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses), this romantic comedy also stars Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenburgen as Andrew's parents, Joe and Grace, and Betty White as the outspoken Grandma Annie.