I'll be reviewing The Proposal so I chose Crazylove as today's fractal. It's a romantic comedy--what more needs to be said?-
You can just about guess the plot from hearing the title of The Proposal. And if the title wasn't enough to give the story away the previews do: Sandra Bullock plays hard-as-nails executive Margaret Tate and Ryan Reynolds is her much put-upon Editor's Assistant Andrew Paxon. Margaret is the classic "boss from Hell" but she's also Canadian--and has been too busy with work to jump through all the immigration hoops. In order to save herself from being deported Margaret concocts a scheme to save her job by arranging a quickie marriage to handy Andrew (who just happens to be making a visit to his family in Sitka Alaska) and the plot is in motion. Will wackiness ensue? Will it all turn out OK in the end? I'm sure you already know--but that's where the fun is. Ah if only the movie had been a little more fun...
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Sandra Bullock excels at playing hard-ass women with a soft, sweet center but even she can't turn the chicken scratch the script gives her into chicken salad. Ryan Reynolds looks good playing his role but the writers turn his character into a gigantic mess of contradictions and unexplained story that make the whole thing a muddy mess. I'm not sure I believed Betty White as Andrew's "gammie" Anne but I enjoyed her time on screen (even though look like something out of a sitcom). I surely didn't believe Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenbugen as Andrew's parents with characters that came off as 100% writer contrivance. Dennis O' Hare is a strangely driven Immigration Agent (who pursues Andrew and Margaret from NYC to the wilds of Alaska). Malin Ackerman (late of Watchmen) goes platinum blonde as Gertrude--the girl Andrew left behind in Sitka: her character is nothing BUT unanswered questions. (Was she supposed to be a villain? Andrew's true love? The one his parents wanted him to marry? We never learn--she barely makes an impression in the movie.) Oscar Nunez is saddled with the thankless role of Ramone (who has a thing for Margaret--and just about every job in Sitka.) His bits get really old, really quickly.
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Any romantic comedy requires a certain suspension of disbelief. In The Proposal mine lasted until the closing credits started rolling: then the whole thing just fell apart for me. I know you have to take a few things on faith but one implausibility piled atop another eventually causes the whole movie to collapse in on itself (for me at least). Robyn liked the movie better than I did but even she had to agree that there was a lot of plot points that simply COULD NOT have happened in this world or any other. (Here's one: flying from New York City to Sitka Alaska and back in three days via commercial airliner simply couldn't have happened.) The writing is just lazy and it ends up sinking what might have otherwise been a charming diversion. Rent it if you have nothing better to do but don't bother rushing to the theater unless you are a madly-devoted Sandra Bullock fan.
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FINAL GRADE: C-
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