Sandra Bullock's latest rom-com THE PROPOSAL is no "Two Weeks Notice" but thankfully it's not "Miss Congeniality 2" either. Her character, Margaret Tate is a variation on the part she's played in every other one of her romantic comedies although here there's less of the uncoordinated klutz and more of the outwardly self-assured and independent career woman.
Tate is a powerful Manhattan book editor, hated by her staff for her demanding and ruthless behaviour. Facing deportation back to Canada because her US work visa has expired she impulsively tells her bosses that everything's going to be ok because she's engaged to be married to her long-suffering, henpecked executive assistant Andrew, played by an uncharacteristically subservient Ryan Reynolds.
This is news to him, not least because he's one of those who hates her guts. He agrees to go along with her scheme but only if she accompanies him on a trip home to Alaska to meet his family. Anyone familiar with Miss Bullock's comedy oeuvre will have no trouble in guessing the rest of the story.
Reynolds and Bullock are an enjoyable screen couple but neither fulfills their full rom-com potential. I sense that each feels subconsciously held back by the presence of the other. Margaret and Andrew are rather faded variations on characters each has played before in earlier romantic comedies. The closest they come to creating a classic moment is a scene when both inadvertently find themselves naked together in the bedroom (with Bullock displaying a fantastic body) but it doesn't quite sparkle like it should.
Too much of the humour feels forced and contrived, particularly everything relating to ex Golden Girl Betty White as Andrew's blunt speaking slightly nutty 90 year old grandmother. The only thing less funny than White is the montage over the closing credits which comes close to inflicting pain comparable to major organ failure.
Being a longtime ardent admirer of Ms Bullock (I'd pay to watch her iron shirts) it pains me to criticise her work, but I'd be less than honest if I didn't say that while THE PROPOSAL is pleasant, undemanding and even genuinely funny in places it falls short of what she's demonstrated she is capable of.
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