The Proposal
PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language
Quiz: How many romantic comedies can you name with these elements? New York City. Magazine or book publishing. Wacky family members. Pretend love turning into real love. A desperate rush to the airport before the plane takes off. Sandra Bullock. Intergalactic time travel.
You can now add "The Proposal" to all of the above lists. Except for the last one.
The Story
Margaret Tate (Bullock) is a successful, hard-nosed NYC book editor despised by her employees, especially her long-suffering assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds). He bows to her every heartless command in hopes of one day graduating to an editor's office.
Then Margaret learns that her neglected Canadian visa status means she'll have to move back to Canada. To save her job, she blackmails Andrew into agreeing to marry her so she can become a U.S. citizen, threatening to fire him if he doesn't go along with the lie to their bosses. He'll also have to lie to his family back in rural Alaska during a weekend trip the two must take together to convince an INS official they're really a couple.
Andrew agrees to marry and quickly divorce his boss -- and risk being jailed for immigration fraud -- on the condition that Margaret will promote him to editor (and ask him nicely to marry her). But once the bickering pair are on Andrew's home turf in Alaska, they quickly realize that faking their romance in front of his dad (Craig T. Nelson), mom (Mary Steenburgen), and eccentric nanny (Betty White) will be harder than either imagined, especially when they genuinely start to warm up to each other.
The Verdict
What we thought of the movie on its own terms
What Works: Though "The Proposal" follows a predictable path, it does include a few nice moments between Bollock and Reynolds and some genuine laughs. Even at 87, Betty White can steal a scene from anyone. The scenery and set decoration made me want to visit Alaska and sit on big leather furniture in front of a roaring fire.
What Doesn't Work: I honestly don't mind a movie that works a predictable formula; it just has to do it really, really well. Director Anne Fletcher has been quoted as saying she was going for the flavor of those old school romantic movies from the 30s and 40s. The problem is that "The Proposal" never generates enough energy to live up to those films.
Sandra Bullock's physical humor and charm have made more than one rom-com watchable, but she is oddly subdued here, and Ryan Reynolds is particularly tame. Without "going big" in the performances and scenes, the film never approaches the level of "screwball comedy." Instead, it just seems to be working it's way through the playbook.
Content: The filmmakers also try to pull funny from some crude humor, including a gross-out "exotic dance" for the ladies by Oscar Nuñez of "The Office," revealing and thrusting way too much. Also quite revealed are Bullock and Reynolds, fully nude and accidently falling on top of each other, in a scene that just barely avoids showing us "everything." In addition to uses of God's and Jesus' names for swearing and other harsh language, Margaret performs a crude rap with granny.
Worldview
How the film's take on life compares to a biblical perspective
"The Proposal" eventually decides that marriage probably shouldn't be used purely as a business transaction; the couple should probably have some real affection for each other. Also, the story seems to suggest that lying to save yourself is a bad idea if your risk hurting others in the process.
Given how obsessed we are as a culture with the path to marriage and how men and women eventually decide who to "end up with," it's fascinating to me how little the Bible says about the process of getting married. Nearly all of its teaching on marriage has to do with how to be married, not how to get married. God's Word seems to assume that if you're going to get married, you'll wind up there one way or another.
When one person says to another in the film, "I want to marry you so I can date you," it is meant as a joke, but it actually sounds way healthier than our usual approach of dating to see if maybe one day we might get married.
I'm convinced the strongest, more rewarding marriages do not succeed because the couple did a good job of "finding the right one." Having some common interests helps, sure, but the biggest indicator of success has to do with whether he's a good husband and she's a good wife.
Take any two random people who choose to sacrifice themselves according to God's model in Ephesians 5:33, and I'd suggest they're just as likely to have a rich, lasting marriage relationship as a couple that carefully screened a dozen applicants before deciding which model to select. Commitment followed by servanthood always works out better than trial period followed by mutual compromise, according to Scripture.
So maybe Margaret and Andrew will have a better shot at making things work than some of those other rom-com couples who finally happen upon the right one just before that mad dash to the airport.
Questions
- What are some of your favorite Sandra Bullock movies? How did this one stack up?
- Did you ever not know how the movie was going to turn out? Does that matter?
- Do you think Ryan Reynolds works as a leading man in this kind of role?
- Most people would rather not be set up in an arranged marriage, but do you think they can work? What would be the advantage of skipping all the dating and deciding and just jumping into marriage, if any?
- Have you ever read Joshua Harris's book I Kissed Dating Goodbye? What's your approach to dating, courtship, or hanging out with the opposite gender?
- Which do you think is the bigger deal in marriage, finding the right person or being willing to be the right person by following God's plan for Christian marriage?
