Darkmatters Review: The Proposal

The Proposal (12a)

Dir. Anne Fletcher - who previously brought you 27 Dresses

Reviewed by Matt Adcock (with his lovely wife)

ONE WORD SUMMATION: Rom-cheese-com

All couples have a ‘tale’ about how they got together - mine is how I asked out both my wife and her best friend at the same time in a kind of “Would you and / or your friend like to go out with me?”… It was a bit cheeky but we’ve been married 15 years now so it must have been the right thing to do. If however I’d been in ‘The Proposal’ my tale would have gone like this:

Evil boss Margaret (Sandra Bullock) is executive editor-in-chief at book publishers Colden Books, she blackmails her loyal assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in prevent her being deported. He isn’t thrilled at the prospect but agrees if she will promote him to the rank of Editor. But the course of quickie-convenience-marriage doesn’t run smoothly and much humour occurs as the awkward pair have to spend the weekend with his parents in Alaska. Can they convince the family, and more importantly the man from immigration, that they are really in love? Is it even possible that they might actually fall for each other?

Director Anne ’27 Dresses’ Fletcher brings her pleasant brand of slick romantic comedy to this tale of true love blossoming in the face of adversity and for the first hour or so it works well. Alas by the end all has turned to overly twee, sentimental mush but there are just enough laughs along the way to make The Proposal one worth considering as a decent date movie. The scenes containing the annoying ‘Granny Annie’ (Betty White) however should have been cut because they are truly terrible…

I saw this with my wife who gave it the thumbs up, although she mentioned that Sandra Bullock might be getting a little old for this sort of role!? We agreed that Ryan Reynolds however is going to be a big star and is quality leading man material.
The two likeable leads are ably supported by the likes of the lovely Malin ‘Watchmen’ Akerman who plays Andrew’s hot blond ex-girlfriend and Craig T. Nelson who does the harsh disapproving father well.

The Proposal is probably the best girly rom-com this year so far and has done big business in the U.S. but it’s still not half as funny as The Hangover…

Darkmatters final rating of: öööööö (6 – here comes the bribe…)

Darkmatters quick reference guide:

Action 4 (move along…)
Style 6 (sassy n fun)
Babes 7 (Malin sexier than Bullock)
Comedy 6 (Some good laughs)
Horror 6 (The Grannie scenes are horrific)
Spiritual Enlightenment 4 (Limited)



"if this was your ex-girlfriend would you pick Bullock instead?"