..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

The Proposal
Directed by Anne Fletcher

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds made a shiny, spiffy romantic comedy couple in The Proposal, which, despite a merely ordinary mismatched couple green card sham-marriage script, by Peter Ciarelli, has been very well directed by Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses), an ex-choreographer with a personality and comic grace.
      
Bullock hasn’t been that hit-visible for much of the decade. But she has a proper star turn here, she looks great and she really seduces the screen, as a beautiful but self-absorbed, ball-breaking Manhattan book editor named Margaret Tate, who discovers that she’s about to be deported back to Canada because of a paperwork snafu, and enlists her male secretary, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds in one of his umpteen recent performances) -- who hates her (or thinks he does) -- as a temporary husband.
    
Back the feuding couple go to Andy’s hometown, Sitka, Alaska, to hobnob with Andrew‘s lovably rich family -- including sweet mama Mary Steenburgen, pushy business dad Craig T. Nelson and foxy grandma Betty White (shoplifting scene after scene). There, Ms. Tate discovers that she and Andrew are simpatico in the nude, and that life can be beautiful, and funny, even if you’re being harassed by an immigration agent named Gilbertson and your governor is Sarah Palin.
     
This is the kind of unapologetically clichéd script that could have tripped up many another director. But Fletcher has a deft touch and an eye for movement and personality, and her actors, especially Bullock and Reynolds, are mostly as charming and funny as they can be. Reynolds has instant affability, even when he’s playing a little mean (which he isn’t here), and Bullock is a real doll, even when she’s playing mean as hell (which here, she is). Next time out, I hope Fletcher has a better script, but she‘s proven she doesn’t always need one.




-by Michael Wilmington

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