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Over the top, but 'The Proposal' is OK

This movie hits all the right comedy notes.

Published online on Friday, Jun. 19, 2009

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There's a very silly and charming scene in "The Proposal" in which Sandra Bullock and Betty White collide in a blaze of comedic glory.

White, an earthy grandma, is dressed in what looks like Native Alaskan eagle garb -- her character is described as part Tlingit, which evidently makes it OK to spoof a native ceremonial dance -- and is prancing around a forest clearing. Bullock, who just rolled out of bed, stumbles upon the scene and is enticed to join the fun. She winds up shaking her bootie to a blaring boom box in an ants-in-her-pants bit of bombast.

Together they whoop it up like old pros. I could imagine the scene fitting right in to an old classic comedy variety series such as "The Carol Burnett Show"

It's over the top, of course, which is a description you could apply to most of this chirpy and highly predictable romantic comedy. But in the hands of Bullock and White, the moment takes on a gleeful, sweet sensibility -- like overindulging in two scoops of unoriginal but gourmet quality ice cream.

In "The Proposal," Bullock turns the "power man" trope, complete with attractive younger secretary cowed by the more aggressive older boss, on its side by reversing the gender roles. As a powerful New York City book editor, Bullock's Margaret Tate makes life miserable for the scrambling Andrew Paxton (an appealing Ryan Reynolds), who both loathes his boss and craves what she can do to help his career.

When immigration woes beset Margaret, who is Canadian, she hatches a plan to stay in the country by marrying the nearest available man, in this case poor Andrew. In the inevitable "Green Card" hilarity that ensues, Andrew agrees to introduce her to his family, which lives on the faraway island of Sitka in Alaska.

I'm not under any illusions that the gender-role-reversal take of the film, which is unevenly but merrily directed by Anne Fletcher, is cutting-edge. (Maybe 30 years ago?) Bullock relishes playing the ogre-boss persona to the hilt, and the way she slowly reveals her character's vulnerabilities is effective, but the role is essentially the standard-issue template of frosty career woman who sacrifices her personal life to get ahead.

Bullock is self-deprecating and funny enough, however, to keep digging the role out of stereotypical clichés. She has an understated knack for physical comedy that comes across with just the right amount of hyperbole for the big screen: struggling to her high-heeled feet on a New York street after a silly proposal moment; teetering nearly nude against a bathtub as she battles the barking family dog; tentatively slapping the bare buttock of an exotic dancer as if she's swatting an unwanted fly.

Reynolds, who is adept at working his puppy-dog eyes, is a good foil for her shenanigans. The director perhaps lays on the bickering between the two a bit too thick early on, but the two stars manage to pull it off.

Old favorites Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson pitch in with comfortable parental roles -- her character dotes on her son, of course, while Dad is convinced he's abandoned the family business to be a wimpy book editor -- and Oscar Nunez of "Office" fame has an extended riff as an exotic dancer, who gives a hilarious, skin-baring performance that is wrong on so many levels it might induce projectile vomiting. (It's also racially insensitive in a boring way.)

Rounding out the talented cast is Denis O'Leary as a skeptical immigration inspector.

And then there's White, of course. She's droll and sticky-sweet in that "Golden Girls" way of hers, and she brings such charm to the role that I couldn't help but grin. When she and Bullock are on screen together, they click in a way that makes this predictable film shine.

As I watched these two talented comediennes in the forest dancing scene, in fact, I had a flash to decades later when Bullock, long past leading roles in romantic comedies, might find herself in the same place as White -- as an older actress in a juicy supporting role. I'm sure that when she does, she'll add the same kind of comic zing.