Review: Rib-tickling rom-com

The Proposal is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen, and the best romantic-comedy to hit the screens in a long while. Choreographer-turned-director Anne Fletcher (27 Dresses, Step Up) frames a wonderfully effervescent portrait of a bitchy editor, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) better known as Satan’s Mistress/The Witch eventually falling in love with her much-younger executive assistant/gopher Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds).

Maggie is a tyrant (remember Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada?), she terrorises her subordinates, fires the man who wants her job and forces her assistant to agree to marry her so that she wont get deported to Canada. The expected romantic complications ensue when Andrew brings Margaret to his Alaska homestead, where his grandmother (Betty White) is about to celebrate her 90th birthday, and his parents (Craig T Nelson and Mary Steenburgen), bemoan the fact that they rarely see their son.

It’s not an original story, the plotlines are hackneyed, events are predictable and there are one-too-many cliches. But Anne Fletcher’s helming of this heavily borrowed, genre-driven script by Peter Chiarelli, is outstanding.

Bullock’s comic timing is awesome. Reynolds is equally effective and seemingly effortless in his portrayal of a guy falling in love with a woman he previously loathed.
 Bullock’s and Reynolds’ performances are beautifully meshed together. The chemistry between the two actors in amazing. This is one proposal you’ll find hard to reject!