Ripped Romance

Putting Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in a movie together was a
good idea. They have great chemistry, are quite charming and can get
some good laughs, even with meager material. Hopefully, The
Proposal won’t be the only time they share the screen—because
the movie isn’t half as good as the stars occupying it.

I was thoroughly enjoying this film before Betty White showed up
doing some Alaskan tribal dance in the forest. Until this awkward and
stupid scene, I was under this film’s sweet, gooey spell. Too bad it
lost its way.

Bullock plays Margaret Tate, a big-time player at a book-publishing
company, and boss to Andrew Paxton (Reynolds). Andrew endures all sorts
of job humiliation in the hopes that he will one day become an editor.
Margaret specializes in condescending tones and ruining Andrew’s
weekends with overtime, so it’s fair to assume that Andrew hates
Margaret.

It turns out that Margaret, a Canadian, has an elapsed work visa,
and deportation is imminent. On the spot, Margaret comes up with a big
lie: She and Andrew have been conducting a secret relationship, and
they are engaged. To keep Margaret from getting shipped back to
Canada—and to prevent Andrew from losing his job—the two
must masquerade and tie the knot, and do it in a convincing manner. A
snotty immigration agent (Denis O’Hare) is keeping an eye on them and
would like nothing better than to catch them in their lie.

One thing leads to another, and the two find themselves on a plane
to Alaska for a visit with Andrew’s cookie-cutter family. There’s the
grouchy and unloving father (Craig T. Nelson) who wants Andrew to dump
the literary pipe dream and take over the family business. There’s the
too-sweet-for-words mom (the impossibly beautiful Mary Steenburgen),
who just wants her little boy to be happy. And then there’s the kooky
grandmother (White) who feels up Margaret’s breasts.

Sure, the premise is ridiculous, but Bullock and Reynolds make it
work—until Pete Chiarelli’s script and Anne Fletcher’s direction
get fatally goofy after the film’s halfway mark. The duo is quite funny
when they are at odds and basically hating each other. When they
predictably go soft on one another, it’s like a torpedo in the side of
an already unsteady ship.

Say all you want about how funny Betty White—in her late
80s—can still be; her part in this film was atrociously written
and an insult to her talents. Her forest-dance scene with Bullock is
embarrassing, and that’s just the primer for a horrendously staged
heart-attack moment.

I have to give props to those responsible for the personal training
of Reynolds and Bullock. They have a comical almost-nude scene together
that shows things are going well at the gym. Members of all genders and
sexual orientations will be mighty pleased by the visuals. And kudos to
Bullock, who is 12 years older than Reynolds, yet is totally convincing
as his love interest. In Hollywood, it’s usually older men who get to
mess around with younger women.

Reynolds has a talent for making bad movies almost tolerable. His
deer-in-the-headlights shtick complements Bullock’s nasty-boss act.
Meanwhile, Bullock is very good at showing the vulnerable side of
Margaret. They are actually a cute movie couple, and I found myself
rooting for their inevitable get together.

Too bad things get moronic, on top of being predictable. Bullock and
Reynolds are much better than, say, Kate Hudson and Matthew
McConaughey, but their material is just as bad. Put them in a better
film, and we might have something.

This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2009.