Review: Accept this 'Proposal'
21 June 2009
How are the elements of the charming, traditional romantic comedy "The Proposal" like the checklist of a charming, traditional bride? Let me count the ways ...
Ryan Reynolds wonders if marrying his boss, Sandra Bullock, is a good thing in "The Proposal."
Something old: The story of a haughty woman and an exasperated man who hate each other -- until they realize they love each other -- is proudly square, in the tradition of rom-coms from the 1940s and '50s. Or is it straight out of Shakespeare's 1590s?
Sandra Bullock is the shrew, Margaret, a pitiless, high-powered New York book editor first seen multitasking in the midst of her aerobic workout (thus you know she needs to get ... loved). Ryan Reynolds is Andrew, her put-upon foil of an executive assistant, a younger man who accepts abuse as a media-industry hazing ritual.
And there the two would remain, locked in mutual disdain, except for Margaret's fatal flaw -- she's Canadian. (So is "X-Men's" Wolverine; I thought our neighbors to the north were supposed to be nice.)
