Friday, June 19, 2009

Romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds deftly dwells in a space where romance meets revenge.

At the soft comic heart of "The Proposal" beats a cheeky update of "The Taming of the Shrew" -- you know, the arranged marriage, wives-submit-to-husbands rubric that Shakespeare played around with all those years ago. The conceit shouldn't, by all rights, work in a modern world where love, and everything else, is supposed to be an equal opportunity affair. And yet . . .

Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds are Margaret and Andrew, the love match at the center of this story, which unfolds through a prism of corporate ambition, fractious families and immigration regulations. All of which might sound rather dreary if not for the caustic yet comfy chemistry created by its two sparring stars, who somehow make the incompatible compatible in some very amusing ways.

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