The Proposal

It’s been many years since Sandra Bullock starred in a romantic comedy and 10 minutes into The Proposal all you can say is, Welcome Back! Directed by Ann Fletcher (27 Dresses), The Proposal is a sassy, sexy comedy that lets Bullock showcase her finely honed comedic talents -- both physical and verbal -- without forcing her to stoop to the low standards the genre has sunk to in the years she’s been gone: In other words, while there are plenty of adult-oriented moments in the film, as befits a love story between two adults, The Proposal never resorts to toilet humor or body fluids for cheap laughs. Instead, it gives the audience two fully developed characters with stories you can not only follow, but believe in, and lets the laughs build from there. Ryan Reynolds stars opposite Bullock as Andrew, her boss-whipped secretary who agrees to marry her so she can get a visa to stay in America and keep her job as a highly paid book editor and not be deported back to Canada. A gifted comic in his own right, Reynolds is man enough in The Proposal to step aside and give the spotlight to Bullock when she deserves it, but with the exception of the scenes where he’s supposed to be brow-beaten into submission, he is also smart enough to not just let her walk away with every scene. The result is some of the best screen chemistry between two stars in decades.