This “Proposal” is a modern day chick flick

Now that “The Hangover” is raking in big bucks as a comedy about marriage from the guy’s point of view, here comes one for the gals. “The Proposal” starring Sandra Bullock is definitely a chick flick, even with Bullock in a powerful female role and a mostly-mild mannered Ryan Reynolds as her much-abused assistant.

The set-up is straight from “Green Card,” but milder, as Margaret (Bullock) is a hard-driving book publisher born in Canada but having a thriving career in New York City. Being so focused on success that she failed to meet her immigration requirements, Margaret discovers she must move back to Canada for at least a year or face some kind of prison sentence.

Could such a thing actually happen? Who knows? The gist of it is that Margaret must demolish her brilliant publishing career or…(trumpet fanfare here)…marry an American. Can you see the rest of this movie passing before you?

Margaret insists her mild-mannered but highly efficient assistant Andrew (Reynolds) marry her. Then after a reasonable time, they will get a divorce. Of course we know that won’t happen. It would ruin the happy ending.

So as a condition of agreeing to marry Margaret, Andrew insists the two of them spend a week with his family in Sitka, Alaska. Wouldn’t you know it, Andrew’s family is very well-to-do and Andrew himself is kind of a black sheep because he wants a career where he actually has to go to work every day. So embarrassing…

Against a stunningly beautiful backdrop of wilderness mountains and romantically heightened living in a luxuriously appointed log cabin mansion, Margaret and Andrew begin to see each other in an entirely different light. But then, you already knew that, didn’t you.

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