The Proposal

In my quest to see so many movies, I sometimes notice that movies that I see back-to-back will sometimes develop a mini-theme. In this case, after seeing an uptight tour guide (Nia Vardalos) who badly needs to get laid, I watched Sandra Bullock in somewhat the same type of role. Thank god I saw them in this order. Watching The Proposal in Leominster last week, I couldn't help but make some comparisons to My Life in Ruins, with The Proposal coming out ahead on nearly every score.

A fake marraige so that someone can stay in the U.S. is a fairly standard movie premise by now, with Green Card being the perhaps being the most ready example that comes to mind. We aren't going to get original concept in The Proposal, based on that fact.

But I don't mind so long as we get a fresh variation on it. In this case, the variation is the use of the Postmodern archetype of romantic relationships, which could be called "bitch in charge."

Bullock is Margaret, the boss from hell at a Manhattan book publishing house. Her character is a riff on Meryl Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada (2006). People cower in their cubicles when they get texts saying that she is arriving. Ryan Reynolds is Andrew, her loyal but long-suffering male assistant, who wants to move to being an editor. Reynolds is twelve years younger than Bullock, and it really shows here. Not that I personally object. Bullock was born a few months before me, and I love it that she can still pull of a romantic lead, and a near nude scene to boot.

But it all emphasizes the point that the woman here has all the power in the relationship, which initially is not romanitc all. Why would such a powerful woman want such a weakling man? She does because of the sudden reversal of fortune that leaves her needing to get married on short notice, in order to avoid being deported back to Canada (due to her own stupidity and arrogance in ignoring the immigration hearings).

Much of the fun of the story from this point onward will involve Margaret's awkward adjustment to not being in charge. The story whisks us off to Alaska (Andrew's home), where we learn that Andrew's family is "the Alaskan Kennedys."

The movie falls into the category of romances in which Classical themes attempt to emerge from underneath a Postmodern veneer. The interesting Classical point that the movie will endorse is the one of the "Unwanted Intrustion by the Man."

Basically this is the idea that for a man to win a woman, he needs, at least once in the initial phase, to be daring enough to break the boundary of her personal space, even to the point of making her slightly uncomfortable. This is endorsed as healthy so long as the man's desire is sincere.

In Classical terms, it is best if the man does this of his own volition. But failing that, it still works if an outside force intervenes to make him do it. In this case, it is the "old wise woman," Andrew's grandmother (Betty White, in a very good supporting role), acting as the life force to get them together. She forces her grandson to give his (fake) fiance a "real kiss" in front of the crowd.

Bullock is a pretty good actress. We can see just the slightest glimmer in her eyes after the kiss that indicates that everything has changed. She has felt something real, and from then on the story has the fairy dust of true romance about it.

Essentially the story is about the twin journeys, therefore, of Margarent learning to experience love as a woman-not-in-charge, and Andrew learning to be a real man who goes after what he wants.

The climax of the movie (the wedding ceremony, of course) involves an old time Classical "crisis of honor" in which one the characters must do the right thing by sacrificing her own happiness. But in Classical terms, true love can restore honor instantly, and this is exactly what we get, in a way that revalidates the title of the movie.

I think it mostly works, despite the gag about the "Alaskan Kennedys" and a less interesting subplot involving Andrew's relationship with this father (Craig T. Nelson). Whenever the action flags, Betty White is there to pick it up again. Perhaps Richard Dreyfus could get ahold of her agent.