Proposal, The (DVD)

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Any genre can be tough, but the romantic comedy provides special challenges. Chemistry between the two stars is paramount, because how else can audiences believe them as a couple? And while the formula is as predictable as a David and Goliath sports film--you know they're going to get together in the end--it's the journey that's supposed to feel different, fresh, and fun. That's not always easy, but how much different can you get than throwing together a New York publishing industry dragon lady and her mild-mannered assistant, whose family is the Alaskan equivalent of the Kennedys?

"The Proposal" is an unabashed old-time romantic comedy in the mold of the opposites-attract bedroom farces of the Fifties--those old Doris Day and Rock Hudson affairs--and the tone is just as playful. While "The Proposal" has been updated nicely for the '00s and features brief nudity, it still somehow retains an air of Fifties' naïvete--the sort of thing that will make theatergoers say to each other, as they walk to their cars, "That was cute." Or "sweet."

Sometimes the way opposites are thrown together feels utterly contrived, but we buy this premise without asking any questions. Sandra Bullock plays the scary Margaret Tate, a take-no-prisoners exec who fires people with the same casual ease she displays in ordering around her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds, "Definitely, Maybe," "Van Wilder"). The whole office is afraid of her, and Bullock is made up to appear more harsh and angular than her usual girl-next-door look. And how is she thrown together with her abused secretary? Informed by top brass that she's going to have to leave the country for a year because of immigration issues--she's Canadian--Margaret thinks on the fly and wings it by calling over her assistant for an awkward hug: "We're getting married," she tells them. Of course he plays along, because not to do so means his job, and just like that they're off for Alaska to meet his family, the first step in finalizing things. Privately she tells him, oh, come on, a marriage, a quickie divorce, there's nothing to it. But of course there's much more to it, and that's where the movie turns fun.

The onscreen comparison to the Kennedys is an apt one, because while the setting is Alaska the locations for this film are mostly Massachusetts with a little Rhode Island and back-lot work thrown in as well. Ryan, who looks a little like Jason Lee without the mustache, has just the right look and temperament to pull off this nice-guy-with-limits role. It's not easy playing second fiddle to Bullock and her dragon-lady persona, but Reynolds holds his own and manages just the right balance of befuddlement and annoyance. It's a part that, in the hands of a less-talented (or secure) actor, could have been a tonal disaster. Bullock, meanwhile, gets the chance to exercise her comic chops and play the reluctant romancer with the same easy flair that she displayed in "Miss Congeniality"--the 2000 charmer, not the 2005 bomb of a sequel.

But it's the second-tier casting that gives the two stars something more to push against, and it's hard to imagine a better trio of "family" than Craig T. Nelson as the slightly intimidating and suspicious clan head, Joe Paxton, and Mary Steenburgen as Andrew's unflappable, easy-going mom, Grace, or especially Betty White as the rambunctious, speak-her-mind Grandma Annie. Other family members blend into a background of Alaskan wildness and family togetherness, just as the office staff recedes. They're not expected to be anything more than that. Aside from an outrageously flamboyant (and yes, laugh-out-loud) performance from Oscar Nuñez as a not-terribly-talented stripper named Ramone, the picture belongs to these five actors, helped by the illusion that we're seeing Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Allusions abound, too, whether it's a nod to those old "Move Over Darling" bedroom scenes that evoke any number of Fifties' films or the introduction of a little white dog about the same time we're told he can't be let outside or the eagles will get him. Well, if you've seen "Meet the Parents" or "There's Something About Mary," you know that pampered pets don't fare well in romantic comedies like this. But to the credit of screenwriter Pete Chiarelli and director Anne Fletcher, not everything is predictable.