THE PROPOSAL (2009)

Monday 3rd January, day before we all finally return to work. Desperately trying to stave off the impending fear of 'to-do' lists and counting the number of 'get-up's until my next holiday, I decided that a day of films was clearly what was needed. The first was 3 Men and a Baby, then, my choice, The Road. That left decision of the 8 o clock movie in the hands of my girlfriend. She sifted through my DVD collection - nothing there to inspire her, I offered my next Lovefilm rental, Jennifer's Body - nope, not her cup of tea, so she flicked through the film channels.....and stopped on The Proposal....I'm a fair man, it was her turn, and I know that I need to hone my talents in reviewing films that I would not choose to watch....



Sandra Bullock plays Margaret Tate, high up on the food chain in a publishing firm and generally thought of by her colleagues as an evil bitch, often referred to as 'It'. Ryan Reynolds is Andrew Paxton her long-suffering young assistant, who has to run around after her night and day, constantly treading on egg shells. Then Tate is told that she is about to be deported back to Canada and she has the spontaneous brainwave that she can marry Paxton and get her Green Card. Then, for some not particularly clear reason, the proof of the relationship, at the request of the immigration office, rests on the success of a trip to Paxton's parents' house in the back-end of nowhere in Alaska. Oh the hilarity ensues.

I'd like to point out here that I am a Sandra Bullock fan and will always want to enjoy a film that she is in. There is a lot of good will stored up inside me for her. However, being a fan of Bullock is a frustrating thing, because she has really put out some dross over the years. Real, top level dross. Here she isn't very convincing as a nasty boss which is mostly because these films are so predictable and you know that as soon as you get used to her being evil, she is going to see the error of her ways and soften up. Plus she is one of Hollywood's good girls. It just doesn't work. She is also starting to look a bit, well, plastic. A bit too done up.....it's a little off putting. Reynolds is better than this as well, and I think he knows it because he is just going through the motions throughout this film. He seems as though he wants to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

If you brush over the nonsensical plot set-up at the beginning you end up in Alaska for yet another attempt to recreate the success of Meet The Parents. Four Christmases tried to do it, failed miserably, and here I was having to endure this recycled idea yet again. There are strange, kooky characters that aren't compatible with Tate's big city sensibility. 90 year old 'Gammie' (played with good humour by Betty White) takes Tate to a strip bar, the stripper also works in the hardware store, Craig T Nelson is Paxton's hard to please father (hang on a second....I'm sure that reminds me of another film), Gammie also does strange ritualistic dances in the woods that Tate gets caught up in. It's not original, it's barely funny at all - What was my girlfriend making me watch. Mary Steenburgen plays Paxton mum and her role is incidental to say the least. Hold on a second, Steenburgen was in Four Christmases and Nelson was in Meet The Parents. It's not the idea they've nicked, they're also just re-using the same actors.

The whole story is the two leads needing to convince everyone that they are a couple, and this is another area in the film that fails to deliver on the humour front, awkward affection and accidental nudity is resorted to. It's all rather desperate.

The final attempt to get laughs is through the use of slapstick, which, as the makers of this film have discovered, is not as easy as it looks. There is a bizarre scene involving a bird stealing Tate's mobile as she chases after it. It's painful to watch.



Having said all of this, the last part of the film did win me over to an extent. And I'm not sure why I fell for it, it's over the top cheese, not funny and totally predictable. I can only put it down to the good will for Sandra Bullock and the fact that she can actually act. In fact, now that I really think about it, she is the only redeemable feature of the film. She gives it her all and isn't afraid to make a fool out of herself. It's not enough to even nearly save the film though. An utter load of tosh.

Another dagger to the heart of a Sandra Bullock fan.