The Proposal
The trailers made The Proposal look appalling, even more so given how many times the trailer was shown. Fortunately it doesn't turn out to be a bad film at all, and while it doesn't do a great deal for the rom-com genre and suffers from various problems, it remains watchable for most of its length and has a handful of pretty-good performances, including the leads. The mix of silly over-the-top action pieces and quiet contemplative moments is more or less correct, and while some bits fail - an extended tribal dance sequence is quite risible - quite a lot succeeds, particularly a scene with a dog, an eagle, and a mobile phone, which is surprisingly amusing. All the usual tedious lessons are learnt of course, family is good, love can blossom in unlikely places, oh we all know the drill. Here the only real complication is an immigration status problem that sets the ball in motion, and I find it rather hard to believe the immigration authorities in the US are quite this lenient on people who have wasted their time - but in the end, this isn't a forensic examination of immigration procedures but a quite formulaic rom-com, and suffices quite well at that. And it does set up a for once decently amusing set of scenes while the credits roll.

Sandra Bullock is infinitely more watchable than in the trailer. Apart from the opening ten minutes or so, where she's deeply irritating and the cause of an office setup which is in itself deeply unrealistic, she mellows quickly and nicely and shows off excellent comic skills while managing to bring some depth to her character. Surprisingly, given the bits shown in the trailer, it's quite a nice performance. Ryan Reynolds, who I'm continuing to warm to as an actor, is fine here too, and he and Bullock play off each other very well. I'm not at all convinced they have the chemistry to work as a couple, but they do the comedy well enough, and the couple bit is going to be after the cameras stop rolling, so they get away with it. Malin Akerman is ok in a very under-written part that continues to look like it is about to be fleshed out but never quite manages it. Oscar Nunez has an amusing, well-played role as someone who keeps cropping up in different guises. Mary Steenburgen must have the 'nice, caring mother' thing perfected by now, and she's fine here but nothing too exciting. Craig T. Nelson doesn't get a very well-written part as the cranky father, a side story which mainly distracts from the main plot but fortunately doesn't get a lot of screentime. Betty White is good fun as the grandmother.

It's not going to change the world, and it's a bit hit-and-miss, but it's a lot more enjoyable than you'd expect from the trailer, and I can't deny that I enjoyed the majority of it. So 6.5 out of 10.