The Proposal

Going into the theater for "The Proposal" you just have to accept the plot is ridiculous. It is. But you're not there for plot. You're there to watch two appealing stars interact and play with the warm familiar constructs of a romantic comedy.

What you get however is two appealing stars with no believable chemistry, and a script that seems pieced together from spare parts of other films.

As for the plot, Bullock's bitchy book editor blackmails her assistant into marrying her to escape deportation back to Canada. In just days they're up at his family's home in Alaska to visit his Grandmother for her 90th birthday to prove they're in love and engage in some "sweet home alabama" big city girl in a small town hijinks.

Ryan Reynolds has lost much of the Dane Cook-y smugness of his early roles and has perfected an air of indignant, sarcastic detachment.
He gets off plenty of good lines at the expense of Sandra Bullock's holy terror of a boss.
Her time seems to be spent either harassing reluctant authors to be on Oprah, or firing uncooperative underlings.
As if to drive the point home and make it clear to the simplest intelligence the script has one of her underlings actually call her a mean bitch.
But Sandra Bullock is such an appealing personality, you know she's not as bad as she seems.

It's mild enough until the wheels completely come off in the third act.
The filmmakers try to cram every cliche they can think off in the finale. There's a person getting left at the altar, a heart attack, the predictable run to the airport, and a "jerry mcguire" inspired declaration of love in the middle of a crowd of coworkers.

All in all, charm only takes this proposal so far.

"The Proposal:" C