Malaysian Today, 30 July - 5 August 2009

Imagine a perfectly normal day at work, and all of a sudden your pushy boss comes up to you and asks you to marry her. In the romantic comedy 'The Proposal', Ryan Reynolds plays assistant Andrew Paxton, whose worst nightmare becomes a reality. His boss, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is to be deported back to her native homeland Canada, and to avoid that she needs to get a sham engagement (and marriage) with an American. That poor unfortunate soul turns out to be Andrew.

Make no mistake, The Proposal is a clichéd movie with a capital C, but admit it, how many romantic comedies aren't? We love watching these types of movies anyway. The movie pretty much follows a tried and tested formula, but sees lots of hilarious events along the way. As bad as things seem for Andrew, he actually sees this as a big fat opportunity for a promotion and even gets to marry his gorgeous (albeit forceful) boss. Personally I'd love to be in his shoes!

Andrew decides to introduce his 'fiancée' to his eccentric family, which happens to be huge in Alaska. With Grandma Annie (Betty White) celebrating her 90th birthday soon, what better time to do so? The reluctant couple travel to Alaska and this is where the fun starts. They squabble over anything and everything under the sun and get into more awkward situations than you can shake a stick at. As the story goes, there is more to Andrew and Margaret than meets the eye, and they both come to realise this. Even Margaret's 'Devil Wears Prada' attitude is justified later on. Worth special mention is the hilarious addition of something called the 'baby-maker quilt', which creates laughs in every scene.

It's refreshing to see Sandra Bullock in a romantic comedy again, which I believe is a genre she does well in. Ryan Reynolds fits his role well too, and has perfected the 'clueless-look'.

There is wonderful chemistry between the two, and having two lovable (and good-looking) leads only adds to the movie's charm. Those with supporting roles also add to the fun, like quirky Grandma Annie and multi-tasking Spanish dude Ramone (Oscar Nuñez), who both steal every scene they're in. The Alaskan town in the movie is also beautiful, with the type of scenery that you wish you can see every morning. While not actually filmed in Alaska, the filmmakers sure did a great job on making the town seem convincing.Half of you might probably be able to guess how the story ends, but like some people say, it's the journey that matters.

As familiar as the story may seem, I must say I enjoyed every bit of this feel-good movie.