The Proposal (2009) - Bullock, Reynolds & Co. make this cookie cutter romcom work

♥♥♥♥

 

+ Best On-Screen Couple of the Year: Sandra Bullock & Ryan Reynolds + Best Romcom of the Year

 

Two beloved Hollywood stars in a twinkle-eyed proposal on this poster for Anne Fletcher's The Proposal

A zealous New York editor gets into a clinch with the immigration authorities, because she is from Canada. To get out of the situation, she makes her personal assistant her fiancée. 

 

The Proposal is written by Peter Chiarelli (Crazy Rich Asians (2018)) and directed by Anne Fletcher (Step Up (2006)).

It is a thoroughly charming and well-made crowd-pleaser romcom. There's never any doubt about the direction of the at first professional boss/employee relationship at the film's core, and the road there might not be packed with surprises, but the stars sell the film in role model fashion nevertheless:

Ryan Reynolds (Red Notice (2021, VoD)) is cute-as-pie here, and Sandra Bullock (Bird Box (2018, VoD)) is full of wonderful facial expressions and seems perfect for this part. Betty White (Bones 2015-17)) is the film's funny third leg, and she also brings a lot of life and joy to The Proposal, along with Mary Steenburgen (Grace and Frankie (2020, TV-series)) and Oscar Nuñes (Mr. Iglesias (2019-20)), who is hilarious as the character Ramone.

The entire plot part about the immigration agent pursuing the 'couple' with grotesque questions is (of course) completely unrealistic, - but the film's other qualities weigh out this issue with aplomb.

 

Related posts:

 

Anne Fletcher: The Guilt Trip (2012) - Rogen/Streisand buoy low-fuel road dramedy

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV] 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 317.3 mil. $
= Huge hit (returned 7.93 times the cost)

[The Proposal premiered 1 June (Hollywood) and runs 108 minutes. Julia Roberts was offered the lead but declined it. Shooting took place from April - June 2008 in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The film opened #1 to a 33.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5-#5), grossing 163.9 mil. $ (51.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 19.2 mil. $ (6.1 %) and Germany with 18.5 mil. $ (5.8 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. It made in excess of 90 mil. $ on the North-American home video market. Fletcher returned with The 82nd Annual Academy Awards (2010, segment) and theatrically with The Guilt Trip (2012). Bullock returned in All About Steve (2009); Reynolds in Paper Man (2009). The Proposal is rotten at 45 % with a 5.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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