Let us now praise Denis O'Hare. Denis who? Well, there's precious little to distinguish witless, mirthless, romanceless 'romantic comedy' The Proposal other than to illustrate O'Hare's continuing progress into the upper echelons of those character-actors known to aficionados as the "that guys." 
   To be a "that guy" (or even a "that gal") one must appear in numerous high-profile Hollywood productions, but without one's name becoming familiar to even the more devoted moviegoer. As chronicled by various websites (including here, and here) Steve Buscemi was at one point a "that guy", Richard Jenkins another, ditto James Cromwell – but it's impossible to be a "that guy" while also being an Oscar nominee. Current "that guys" include veterans like James Rebhorn, relative newcomers like Tommy Flanagan, as well as Xander Berkeley, Zeljko Ivanek, Stephen Tobolowsky, William Fichtner, and Larry Miller. And Denis O'Hare.
   Having made his name on the stage – including a Tony in 2003 – O'Hare, now 47, was a relative latecomer to regular big-screen work: 21 Grams (2003), Garden State (2004), Derailed (2005), Half Nelson (2006). He only clicked into the proper "that guy" workrate in 2007: Michael Clayton, Charlie Wilson's War, A Mighty Heart, Rocket Science and Awake. Last year he was in Milk, Quarantine and Baby Mama, while in recent months he had a relatively bulky part in Duplicity - a film to which The Proposal is a sort of less edgy, less brainy, less stylish cousin.
   In both movies, a pair of dislikeable characters gradually realise that they're as morally rotten, as ruthlessly selfish, as unscrupulously devious as each other – and are therefore a perfect, if unorthodox love-match. But whereas in Duplicity Julia Roberts and Clive Owen project just enough snazzy swagger to make us – almost – swallow the premise, in The Proposal Sandra Bullock (as a hardnosed Manhattan publishing executive in the Devil Wears Prada evil-female-boss mode) and Ryan Reynolds (as the nice but very ambitious underling she decides to marry to avoid deportation back to her native Canada) never really succeed in creating the necessary suspension of disbelief. 
   It's not really the actors' fault, of course: director Anne Fletcher and scriptwriter Pete Chiarelli are the chief culprits here. That said, while Chiarelli receives the sole screenplay credit – his first – this is a movie that feels like it's been through countless rewrites from various sources, with maximum studio interference to ensure that the result is as inoffensively bland, as mainstream-friendly as possible. The Proposal is thus a particularly undemanding, innocuous enterprise, one aimed very squarely at the more undemanding sector of the adult female moviegoing demographic – pity the poor boyfriend or husband dragged along to the multiplex.
   They'll have to endure roughly several embarrassing, supposedly "comic" set-pieces, which occur after Bullock accompanies Reynolds back to his Alaskan family – it's his first visit home in three years - and the duo try to convince his parents (Mary Steenburgen, Craig T Nelson) and nonagenarian granny (Betty White) that they're a real love-match. 
   Set-piece number one involves an adorable puppy being snatched by a rapacious eagle; next we have Reynolds and Bullock colliding naked in their bedroom; then it's the pair singing along (her in bed, him on the floor) to a 1980s hip-hop number - soon after granny is seen performing a Native-American style ritual in the forest; Bullock joins in and her "new age" dancing soon segues into vigorous hip-hop moves; later a boat-ride ends with Bullock falling into the water ('mild peril', as the British censor would describe it.)
   Together, these five sequences yield perhaps one laugh - representative of a film whose general gag-rate is woefully low (a typical example of verbal humour – Reynolds describes Bullock as being "as subtle as a gun.") This might not matter if the story was in any way original or engaging. As it is, we care little about whether Reynolds and Bullock get together (just as some folk are afflicted with 'charistnma', the stars display an unfortunate example of 'chemisntry') – and their progress from antipathy to mild dislike to amour fou ("things changed when we kissed") is never remotely convincing.
   Also, while it's moderately pleasing to see Bullock's nail-hard solipsist belatedly come to her senses – partly thanks to her enforced transplantation from the big, nasty city to the twee, no-nonsense small town (an apparently compulsory trope in current rom-coms) Reynolds' scheming opportunist, who is, we reaise, no less culpable, is let off the hook, his character allowed to coast along on his combination of looks, abs and doe-eyed charm.
   How ironic that a comedy which is all about the perils of insincerity, and the dangers of unchecked careerism, should itself feel so very ersatz (the whole thing was filmed in and around Boston, with mountains digitally inserted to simulate the 50th state), and so mechanistically calculated to further the Hollywood earning-potential of director Fletcher and scriptwriter Chiarelli.
   On the plus side, the picture will at least have provided veterans Nelson, Steenburgen and White with what was presumably a moderately lucrative paycheck – although for Steenburgen, Curb Your Enthusiasm must suddenly feel like a long time ago, her Melvin and Howard Oscar something from a distant epoch. And then, of course, there's Denis O'Hare.
   As U.S. Immigration official Mr Gilbertson, O'Hare only appears in a small handful of scenes but injects a wry, dry wit – in what is, as written, a thankless role – that the picture really doesn't deserve. His ever-suspicious functionary provides the script with what passes for a structure – Reynolds and Bullock use the long weekend to prepare for a probing interview with Gilbertson, designed to distinguish true love from green-card fraud – and the movie is such a triflingly minor bauble that O'Hare is able to steal it with minimal effort. And, it must be said, even more piddling reward.
   
Neil Young
27th July, 2009

—————————————————-

director : Anne Fletcher
country : USA
year : 2009
run-time : 108m (BBFC)

seen : 21st July, 2009
cinema : Cineworld, Boldon, UK (press show)
format : 35mm

MVP : Denis O'Hare
respected second opinion : Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal