Secondhand Reviews: The Proposal

 Don't you just love movies where you don't have any of that annoying "suspense" or "unpredictability" stuff? I mean, who wants to watch a movie where you don't know right from the first scene what's going to happen to each character and how everything is going to turn out? That "surprise" element is so over-rated! In fact, it's even better if you don't even have to see the ads or trailers for the movie, and can figure everything out just from the premise! Well, here's the perfect movie for people just like us: "The Proposal". And by the way, I never use sarcasm in any of these reviews.

Regarding that premise: well, Sandra Bullock plays a powerful and greatly feared editor at a prestigious publishing house who deliights in the fear she causes in all her employees, particularly her personal assistant (played by Ryan Reynolds). But one day she learns that some paperwork she never got around to could result in her being deported (to Canada!) in very short order. What to do? Well, this is the movies, after all, and specifically, a romantic comedy, so the obvious natural thing to do is marry an American citizen. Trouble is, she's not even in a relationship, so Reynolds gets drafted (threatened with the loss of his job unless he plays along). And the fun starts from there.

Well, theoretically, at any rate. If you genuinely have any doubts about whether Bullock and Reynolds will fall in actual love by the end of the movie... no, there's no real purpose in finishing that sentence, because of course you don't. Nobody does. You know you've seen this movie already just from the description. And yet it was a hit. Go figure. Extreme predictability can be overcome, sometimes, by outstanding performances and/or clever writing. And there are very brief flashes of both here, but compared to the tidal wave of unfunny and unromantic sludge, well, you know which of those is going to win.

Bullock has demonstrated a real comic talent in the past and as far as I'm concerned (I know a lot of people would disagree) was quite effective dramatically in "Crash". But she seems to have developed some of the worst taste in scripts in all of Hollywood over the past few years (and it doesn't look to be getting any better with "All About Steve"), and her roles have too often become her "playing the Sandra Bullock role" in the same manner each time. It's difficult to imagine, also, that this is the same Ryan Reynolds who was so good in "Definitely Maybe", one of the very few really good romantic comedies of the past few years. He's blandness personified in "The Proposal". And the cast is a virtual who's who of talented people (like Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson as Reynolds' parents) who are given absolutely nothing to do other than try in vain to add a certain element of prestige to the film. Oscar Nunez from "The Office" is an especially painful case in point: a master of subtle, realistic comedy on that show, in this movie he's saddled with an offensively stereotypical "Latino" role that would still be downright embarassing to watch even without the racially demeaning humor.

The script isn't really any better. There are two, and exactly two, scenes that caused me to laugh in the entire film. Meeting Reynolds' family for the first time, Bullock and Reynolds each take turns telling the story of how they allegedly fell in love, each of them continuing to take the story in directions that make the other out to be the biggest idiot imaginable, in a sequence that actually uses some imagination and bite in the humor (and makes you wonder why those elements don't turn up anywhere else). And Bullock has precisely ONE moment demonstrating her talent for slapstick: just pay very close attention as soon as you see her leave Reynolds' parents' house to take a cell phone call, followed by the family dog. But that's as far as it goes. The writing is more typified by a truly dreadful sequence featuring Betty White (otherwise the movie's comic high point) in performing some sort of pseudo-Native-American ritual in full costume, interrupted by Bullock who turns the who thing into an awful singalong to a favorite rap tune. I cannot possibly make that scene sound as thoroughly unfunny as it really is.

And when was the last time you ever saw a movie... whether comedic, dramatic, romantic comedy, whatever... in which a woman boss was NOT portrayed as a fearsome dragon lady who had all her employees running in terror whenever she showed up at the office? A strong, purposeful male boss is always looked up to, but a woman in the same position? Not a chance. It's a little embarassing to continue to see women portrayed in this way, and even more so to see performers like Bullock continue helping to perpetuate these stereotypes.

If you really are a fan of romantic comedies in general (as you might have guessed, as a general rule I'm not), you'd do a lot better to go back and see some of the real  classics like "Bringing Up Baby". You could even watch Ryan Reynolds in "Definitely Maybe", which works surprisingly well. For that matter,  considering how popular this movie was at the box office, it's not out of the question that you MIGHT really enjoy watching "The Proposal"... after all, a lot of people did. Yes, there are a lot of things I just don't understand and never will about how people act, and that would definitely have to be one of them.