The Proposal

Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is a hard driving and seemingly heartless editor for a major publishing company in New York. Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) is Margaret’s soft assistant with aspirations of becoming an editor himself. When Margaret is threatened with deportation to Canada on a green card technicality, she makes a last ditch effort to keep her job and residency by claiming she’s engaged to be married to Andrew. An unconvinced immigration officer then sets out to prove the engagement is a ruse; meanwhile Margaret and Andrew spend a weekend in Andrew’s home town of Sitka Alaska to learn everything there is to know about each other, convince Andrew’s family of the relationship, and celebrate the 90th birthday of Andrew’s grandma Annie (Betty White). The act seems to be going well but what happens when the two actually fall in love? The ProposalStandard romantic comedy rules apply to this semi clever spin on an old plot line. There’s really not a lot of new material covered in this tale; however, the chemistry between Bullock and Reynolds does seem to gel and Betty White succeeds with her type cast role as the cute eccentric old lady. A few clever gags and bits elicit some chuckles as well. As a date movie this just might work, although perhaps best as a matinee. The Proposal is rated PG-13.