From RomCom, to ComRom - The Proposal

The Proposal, starring the undeniably charming and funny Ryan Reynolds and awesome lady extraordinaire Sandra Bullock is a romantic comedy with a simple, probably overused premise - mean lady, nice man, thrown together, hilarity ensues with smoochies.

The specifics being that when Bullock's character, a sharp minded editor of a publishing house is about to be deported back to Canada, she convinces Reynolds into marrying her so that she can stay in the country.

I wasn't expecting much out of this movie, because Romantic Comedies tend to follow a certain path of standard stuff. Tension leads to quiet commonalities, which leads to romance, which leads to some kind of conflict dealing with previous tension, which leads to resolution, which leads to smoochies. But that's kind of what you have to deal with, it's a RomCom, it's going to have some of the details of a RomCom. If it didn't, it would be in another genre.

The thing that was different about The Proposal, is that instead of focusing on the romance, it focuses on the comedy aspect (in a non-vulgar kind of way). It's still a female driven movie, in the sense of it having a female character in it, but it's not cookie cutter. There are different shades.

Sandra Bullock's character is a bitch. But not in the way that a female Simon Cowell would be. More in the empowering sense of the term. She scares her subordinates, but it's made clear that her assistant (Reynolds) and her bosses really respect her. She gets the job done. In an early scene when she talks down to another employee, he kind of deserves it. He was lazy and she ended up getting the job done for him. And especially in Publishing, with the kind of severance he was offered, she was ridiculously nice to him. (Two months to find a job in any economy is gracious indeed, but with a career field that has such a high turnover rate - it's next to sainthood).

So when she shows her sensitivity, it's through awkwardness and not thrown in your face. Not once does her character give a long speech about why she is the way she is, because of having no social life and focusing on work. Nor does she ever apologize for it. She shouldn't have to. It's only through the development and the friendship she creates with the family and with Reynolds that these things come out.

Oh and it helps that Betty White was hilarious as a 90 year old Gammy.

The romance develops, but not in big sweeping gestures and grandiose speeches, but in simple interactions and conversations. It is almost a realistic development surrounded by unrealistic circumstances which gives the movie it's premise.

The cast helped a lot too. Many of the lines could have been pulled off by anyone but Reynolds, and Bullock made a likable character from the beginning, even with her rough edges.

All in all, I'd probably put The Proposal as one of those RomComs who made it past the frame of what they're supposed to be and became more, but with subtleties rather than sweeping changes. It was a good film, I laughed very hard in a fair amount of places and said "aww" in quite a few parts (along with the rest of the audience).

All the good of RomComs and none of the bad.