The Proposal is an American romantic comedy film directed by Anne Fletcher. The screenplay was written by Pete Chiarelli and stars Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The film was released on June 18, 2009 in the UK and June 19 in North America by Touchstone Pictures.Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is the executive editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, Colden Books. All of her workers, including her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), hate her. After learning she is being deported back to Canada, she forces Andrew to marry her, as his future is tied to hers. When the government investigates, Mr. Gilbertson (Denis O'Hare) informs them that they will undergo rigorous testing to prove that the marriage is not fraudulent, after being notified by Bob Spaulding that this marriage might be a scam. Andrew grudgingly accepts the proposition of marrying Margaret on the condition that he be promoted to the position of editor and his manuscript be published. They travel to a little town and Margaret Tate finds out that Andrew Paxton's parents are very rich. The two were put in the same room of a house and Andrew announces their marriage in a welcome home party. Margaret was to tell the story of Andrew proposing, Margaret and Andrew make up a story and were told to kiss each other. Andrew started liking her after that. They slept separately in their rooms and one time Andrew and Margaret accidentally saw each other naked. Watch the movie to find out more about it.
Reviews
The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 44% of critics gave positive reviews based on 169 reviews with an average score of 5.3/10. However, it can be observed that 81%, or 826 users of RT Community who reviewed The Proposal, out of 1018, gave it a "Fresh" Rating, of an average score of 7.2/10. By comparison, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, the film has an average score of 48% based on 29 reviews, but was generally well received by viewers receiving an average score of 8/10.
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ praising "the chemical energy between Bullock and Reynolds." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3 stars out of 4 despite complaining that the film "recycles a plot that was already old when Tracy and Hepburn were trying it out". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 1 star out of 4, noting positively "the one star rating I've put on The Proposal is all for Betty [White]."
