‘The Proposal’ for originality?

They say a romantic comedy does not need to be original in order to be enjoyable. Usually people expect to discover some new and interesting things from the so-called “chick flicks” or relationship- based movies, but end up bitterly disappointed.

This summer’s romantic comedy blockbuster “The Proposal,” starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, disappointed the audience.

The story revolves around Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), an influential book editor and a mean boss. She forces her young assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her so she would not be deported back to Canada, her home country.

The always lurking and suspicious immigration officer Mr. Gilbertson (Denis O’Hare) makes the marriage arrangements more complicated, forcing the new couple to stick to their fake wedding plan in order not to go to jail. Things get even worse when Andrew and Margaret have to act like a happy couple in front of the whole Paxton family. The plot of the movie is similar to that of “Meet the Parents” (starring Robert De Niro , Ben Stiller and Blythe Danner, directed by Jay Roach), but with a different setup.

Like many movies, “The Proposal” has its good and bad moments, which altogether manage to create a pleasant picture. The story is quite unbelievable - a millionaire descent Paxton who could have opened his own publishing house in the first place, instead endured a despotic woman’s moral tortures for years and ended up falling in love with her in only three days. The scene in which Tate gets down on her knees in the middle of the street to propose to Paxton is unreal as well, not even mentioning the badly-produced scene in which an eagle snatches a poor little puppy. The absolute nonsense of Bullock performing the rap dance in the woods becomes a shattering failure for the whole film, as this scene is completely embarrassing and out of place in this particular movie.

“The Proposal” was partly saved by the enchanting comfort level, balancing between the vague tenderness of Sandra Bullock’s acting and the always cute and funny Reynolds. In the end of course, the terrible woman and the exasperated man who hated each other to death fall in love.

Even so, the movie is predictable and artificial, obviously produced to entertain the target audience and therefore lacking any contemplative purposes.

Although “The Proposal” does not truly stand out among other similar movies, it is decent, nonetheless. It surprisingly revealed the good old family values, such as care, understanding and love which have been forgotten in most of the contemporary movies. “The Proposal” gives away a little bit of warmth, even though the conflict between Andrew and his father (Craig T. Nelson) was, unfortunately, underdeveloped. Not being a fantastically humorous comedy, the movie still made me smile through most of the action, and the catchy phrase written through an IM service by one of the office employees – “The Witch is on the broom!” – made me remember my school years along with the most severe teachers.

“The Proposal” is a romantic comedy aimed to please the masses, offering obtuse entertainment while being a good time-killer. The movie might not be groundbreaking, but would definitely be a fun way to escape the reality for a few hours and lift up your spirits!