An Engaging Chick Flick

Finally, a movie that marries gut wrenching comedy with the chiseled abs of a foxy twenty something. The Proposal is the first chick flick in months that kept me engaged from beginning to end.


After seeing the initial trailers, I was worried that this was just a silver screen version of Americans mocking Canadians, a trend that seems to be on the rise in Hollywood. Both Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother featured characters desperately trying to evade immigration authorities so that they could avoid the land of Mounties, igloos, and beavers. I fully expected the movie to be a compilation of Canadian jokes, both new and old, to fuel the already overinflated American superiority complex. Who knew that my expectations were way off, eh?

Sandra Bullock is stuck in a perpetual state of role repetition, but she has definitely made it work for her. Though each character is similar to her previous role and she goes through similar life lessons to eventually find love and therefore happiness, it has yet to bore audiences. Sandra Bullock’s latest man candy is played by the seriously pretty Ryan Reynolds. Unlike previous Sandra man targets, Ryan Reynolds is not a secondary character but rather Sandra’s counterpart. He plays the perfect comedic compliment to Sandra Bullock’s bosszilla, and his rendition of DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two to Make a Thing Go Right” is stuck on repeat in my head. The resulting constant giggling has my family worried. Betty White is the Golden cherry atop this delectable cast completing the perfect recipe for a sweet and saucy romantic comedy.

The humor is not always witty, classy, or even plausible, and yet it left audiences rolling in the aisles. At some points, particularly the shower scene, the audience was literally snorting, howling, and convulsing with laughter. Some things are just funnier naked. Though the movie eventually gets to that predictable chick flick destination, it is most definitely worth the trip.