CINEMA: The Proposal

Whatever happened to the romcom?

Back in the days of Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant romcoms like Adam’s Rib and His Girl Friday were dingdong battles of the sexes with witty one-liners whizzing around so fast you had to keep on your toes to keep up with them, while the women gave as good as they got and almost whisked the guys’ pants off in order to show who wore the trousers. Nowadays we get the likes of The Proposal, which isn’t bad as far as modern romcoms go, but is limp and emasculated compared to its forebears.

Here’s a short synopsis of the plot of any modern day romcom: she’s a bitch, preferably a hard working, high achieving bitch who has never had time for babies or men; he’s either a sexist slob or a bloke in real life she’d never even consider as a mate. They meet, they bicker a bit, there are some lame sex jokes probably involving nudity, inappropriate clothing or a sex toy, then he realises underneath her ball-breaking exterior beats the heart of a little lady who just wants to be lurved, while she (because she’s not getting any younger and her biological clock is ticking) lowers her sights and decides he’ll do as well as anyone else as a sperm donor.

Most of these movies star Katherine Heigl (watch out for The Ugly Truth coming your way soon) but The Proposal stars the once feisty and fabulous Sandra Bullock, now consigned to wearing inappropriately high heels and acting with her little finger as (you guessed it) the high powered, ball-breaking Canadian book editor Margaret, who is about to be thrown out of the States because her visa has expired. Enter her mousy assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) who agrees to marry her so she can stay in the country.

So, it’s off to Alaska so Margaret can meet her prospective in-laws, which is when she discovers (shock, horror!) Andrew isn’t the nobody she’s always thought, but actually the son of a mega-rich clan who live in a castle on an island. Cue misunderstandings, shared bedrooms but no nookie, yes, that inappropriate nude scene, and the sudden realisation that they’ve actually fancied the pants off each other all this time but never realised it.

There are one or two laughs and some nice supporting work from Mary Steenburgen as Andrew’s mum, but the movie runs out of steam halfway through, while Reynolds has all the emotional flexibility of a handsome man who has got by all his life on a winning smile.

So, it’s mildly amusing and entertaining, but it should have been so much sharper, quicker and more biting. It’s about time Hollywood woke up to the realisation successful, intelligent women don’t have to be bitches and can actually possess a sense of humour but, like women finally managing to break through that glass ceiling, don’t expect it to happen any time soon.

Dee Pilgrim