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In “The Proposal,” high-powered publishing house editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) faces deportation to her native Canada and must bribe her abused assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), into marrying her.
He agrees after she offers him the editor’s position he’s been eyeing for three years. But when an immigration officer sees through the ploy, Tate must travel to Alaska for the 90th birthday of Paxton’s grandmother to prove the validity of the marriage. Let the high jinks begin.
As she attempts to flesh out the straight-spined Tate, Bullock fails to find a believable and winning balance. At times, Bullock reverts to her trademark goofiness that drove the immense popularity of “Miss Congeniality” and, to take it back to her heyday, “While You Were Sleeping.”
On the other hand, when she tries on the “I’m a hard-ass business woman” suit, she’s believable and completely unlovable.
As Tate and Paxton fall in love, their utter lack of anything resembling chemistry sinks the ship whole.
Reynolds cannot seem to channel his boyish appeal into a leading man. The very characteristics that color Reynolds’ wit come off as strikingly immature when he attempts to invoke depth of any kind. His quibbles with his father, for instance, merely draw attention to the feeling of adolescence that tints his every sentence and action.
Along the way, there are a number of perfunctory rom-com gags. Our favorite “Golden Girl,” Betty White, has some witty one-liners and Oscar Nuñez of “The Office” steals whatever show there is to steal as Ramon, an omnipresent townsperson of ambiguous citizenship. But with the glaring absence of chemistry between the leads, “The Proposal” remains an offer that should be declined.
Rating: Two-out-of-five stars
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