So most of you might be asking: “What?? A Romantic Comedy, what have you done with the real Cinema Cocoa??”
Simply put, a relentless boss forces her assistant into marriage so that she can avoid being deported to Canada for a year and lose her business standing. They hate each other, but does this bribe become more than she can handle?
Its a romantic comedy, of course it does!
I don’t rightly know why I was so compelled to see this, but it would be the premise mostly. The idea of a hard, emotionally-void business woman finding herself backed into such a corner she makes the snap decision to marry her assistant, an assistant who wants nothing more than the chance to take her down several pegs.
In this regard, the film succeeds. I really enjoyed the opening act and much of the second. Their office staff being in constant contact so they can message each other whenever Sandra Bullock’s cold-hearted Margaret enters the room; “the witch is on her broom”. Ryan Reynolds does well too as Andrew, a man at the end of his tether, reveling in switching the bribery around from time to time. It was what I was expecting it to be, but as such it was entertaining!
Then of course… the film develops the characters, oh, and they start having real feelings for each other, etc etc. There are some weird side-tracks in the second act when they go to Andrew’s family’s home in Alaska, for example Margaret finding his grandmother doing a tribal dance in the forest… What, what am I seeing?
A situation with Sandra Bullock, a small dog and an eagle was priceless though.
People wonder why I don’t normally watch “Rom-Coms”, and it is because they are often ridiculously predictable, and there’s no denying this film is the same. I know, action/sci-fi films are predictable in their own ways, but these sorts of movies don’t have the luxury of being blatantly fictional.
Oh, there’s a wedding… hmm, I bet all my money it doesn’t go smoothly. These people aren’t leaving this chapel happy.
There will be a crushing reality moment where our lovers are separated, but heroically our man will run, climb, struggle through crowds in the dying minutes of the film to fix everything.
Yep, The Proposal isn’t a film I’m likely to watch again, but I am glad I bothered to give it a go. It is a short, amusing waste of time, and most importantly, I could buy into these two actors playing these roles.
Additional Marshmallows: Another thing about Rom-Coms, look at that bland, uninteresting poster! Seriously, did a robot design that? (and yeah, I will say the same about Skyfall‘s marketing for the same reasons!)