The Proposal Deluxe 2-Disc DVD Review
by Nadya Vlassoff

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock make a fantastic comedic duo in The Proposal, a charming romantic comedy now out on DVD that pits two people who were never supposed to fall in love against each other. The story begins with Margaret Tate (Bullock), a high-strung editor-in-chief of a prestigious publishing house in New York City who finds herself in hot water with American immigration and must return to her native Canada and lose her job.

In a desperate attempt to stop her deportation, Margaret forces her unwilling assistant Andrew Paxton (Reynolds) into a sham marriage for a green card. Andrew agrees, out of fear of losing his job, but also out of fear of Margaret herself who makes Ivan the Terrible look like a playground bully.

A quickie marriage and the thought of an even faster divorce are only complicated by a pesky immigration agent (Denis O’Hare) with many questions and the ever difficult task of meeting the parents. As they begin their fake yet convenient deal, Margaret and Andrew find it harder and harder to tell the difference between love and marriage. Once the couple arrives in Andrew’s hometown of Sitka, Alaska, Margaret begins to discover that Andrew isn’t the man she thought him to be.

With Mary Steenburgen as Andrew’s dotting mother, Grace, Craig T. Nelson as his emotionally distant father, Joe, and the hilarious Betty White as Gammie, Margaret begins to remember that family really is more important than her next business deal, which, in this case, is her convenient deal with Andrew.

Over the weekend, Margaret becomes a fish out of water as a frazzled Bullock tries to give a puppy to a hungry eagle, unexpectedly has a naked encounter with her fake beau (guys will love this one), which is also orchestrated by the adorable puppy, is forced to a stagette to watch an awkward Oscar Nunez from The Office serve as a stripper, and Bullock gets jiggy with it around a ceremonial bonfire with actress Betty White who plays Andrew's quirky and hilarious Alaskan grandmother.

Directed by Anne Fletcher and written by Pete Chiarelli, The Proposal is a funny but clean recipe of quippy one-liners delivered with perfect comedic timing by Bullock and Reynolds who is quickly establishing himself as one of Hollywood’s leading men. Although The Proposal was actually filmed in Massachusetts, the cinematographers did a bang up job of adding a backdrop of Alaskan snow capped mountains to the sprawling landscape.

The special features on the DVD begin with a full blown alternate ending that gives fans a real look at what an alternate ending feature should look like as a feature. Interestingly, the alt ending introduces a character we didn’t see in the movie and also serves up optional director commentary in order for viewers to understand why the film got the other ending in the final cut.

The Proposal also gives fans a better than average feature length commentary for the entire film by director Anne Fletcher and writer Pete Chiarelli. However, the best bang for the special features buck is the Set Antics segment, which gives viewers a chance to go behind the scenes and see just how well Bullock and Reynolds were able to work together and how the on-screen chemistry between the two has a lot to do with their comedic chemistry.

Rounding out the features is a pair of deleted scenes that blend well with the storyline while the digital copy allows for easy upload to a computer or digital device and will provide great entertainment for anyone on the go.

-- Nadya Vlassoff

 

 

 

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