The Proposal - Blu-ray Review

[Jon Liu]

The Proposal

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, Betty White, Denis O’Hare, Malin Akerman
Director: Anne Fletcher
Studio: Touchstone Pictures/Buena Vista
Runtime: 108 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Blu-ray Release Date: October 13, 2009

Movie

Margaret Tate (Bullock), a hard-nosed, success-driven book editor in one of the top New York publishing companies is told that she is facing deportation for violation of a term of her work visa by her bosses. An utterly stunned Tate is forced to come up with a solution so that she can remain in her position at the company. In comes Andrew Paxton (Reynolds), Tate’s assistant who has been slaving at Tate’s side for the last three years in order to earn his way to a promotion. When he interrupts the conversation and she instantly concocts a scheme that could easily solve her deportation woes. Margaret reassures her bosses that there is nothing to worry about because she will be marrying Andrew. Tate reassures Paxton that it will be only be temporary and they will be divorced in no time. Reluctantly and confused Paxton goes along with it and the two go to the immigration office to resolve her deportation issue.

Upon arrival Margaret and Andrew receive a zealous caseworker named, Mr. Gilbertson (O’Hare), who immediately sees right through their plot, however, with no proof and their word that it is a real marriage he must let them go for now. Mr. Gilbertson reminds them that it is highly illegal to marry simply for the purpose of avoiding deportation and he assures them that he will be checking up on them to ensure that it is not a scam. Both Margaret and Andrew reassure Mr. Gilbertson of their decision and to solidify it Margaret reveals her intent to go to tell Andrew’s parents in the upcoming weekend. Mr. Gilbertson sets an appointment for after the weekend to meet with the couple again and find out how much one another knows about each other.

In order to pull this off properly, Margaret must learn as much about her assistant, Andrew, in the upcoming weekend retreat in Sitka, Alaska where his family will be celebrating Andrew’s grandmother’s (White) 90th birthday. During their time with his family, Andrew and Margaret force themselves to get along with one another to also convince his family that they are really a couple. As the weekend progresses, the seemingly mismatched pair begin to have feelings for one another, but is it enough to convince everyone, and specifically, can they convince Mr. Gilbertson that the wedding is legitimate? More importantly, is their love truly flourishing?

The Proposal, may not be what most would instinctively pick to watch, but I will be honest, I was surprisingly entertained by this movie. Sandra Bullock seems to have a knack for playing this type of role and she does it very well. Ryan Reynolds is also very memorable and the two together actually have a comedic chemistry that I found myself engaged in throughout the film.

Rating

The Proposal is rated PG-13 for sexual content, nudity and language. This is a moderately rated PG-13 movie as there are several scenes of sexual content and a longer sequence of nudity, although the important stuff is covered up. Almost all of these sequences of sexual content and nudity are done in humorous ways.

Video

The Proposal receives a decent transfer, but it really is nothing to write home about. The overall detail resolution seemed slightly lacking and was especially obvious with facial detail or lack thereof. The image is not soft, but it lacks the fine detail on objects that would’ve made this transfer stand out. Foliage and landscape shots were slightly more pleasing, but ultimately still fell short. I would have loved to have seen a better transfer for this, especially given the two locations this film takes place in, busy New York City and beautiful Alaska.

Colors have a natural tone to them and there aren’t a whole lot of instances where colors stand out. In the couple of scenes that the movie was shot in dim or dark sequences shadow delineation and black levels appeared to be spot on, however those scenes were very sparse through this brightly lit movie. Whites were never overblown and during the many, bright sequences of the movie the contrast remained in check. Again, though the contrast was fine, it still lacked a certain pop. There just seems to be a general lack of three-dimensional depth to this film.

Overall, the video transfer of this is somewhat what I come to expect from this genre, but for a movie that I actually found myself enjoying more, I was hoping that the video would add to my level of enjoyment during my viewing. At least, it did not hinder my enjoyment of the film.

Audio

The film gets treated to a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track that actually is better than some within the same genre. Dynamics are hardly anything worth noting, but the clarity of the dialog throughout the film was great, which is the most important part especially for this type of film. Surround speaker activity is relatively sparse and more supportive to the activity on screen.

Music in this film was more noticeable to me, likely due to many of the catchy tunes they used, but it also called for some low frequency activity that did surprise me slightly. Aside from the low-end support for music, the LFE was much less active throughout the film. There aren’t any instances that the LFE gets low enough to flex the power any heavy-hitting subwoofers, but it was more than you usually would receive in a romantic comedy.

Extras

There’s not a whole lot of extras for this release. The extras are as follows:

-Audio commentary with director, Anne Fletcher, and writer, Peter Chiarelli
-Three deleted scenes (6 minutes)
-An alternate ending (6 minutes)
-“Set Antics: Outtakes and Other Absurdities from ‘The Proposal’” Gag reel (6 minutes)
-Theatrical Trailers
-Digital Copy of the movie to transfer to your computer

Overall

As I stated before, I actually found myself enjoying this film quite a bit. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that I went out and bought it because it is likely a movie I will watch over again. Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds both have comedic timing and personalities that really lend to their characters really nicely. Truthfully, without them this movie would really not be worthwhile. The video transfer and audio track are nothing really memorable, but both did what they needed to well enough. I recommend this movie as a great choice for those whose significant others may be aching to watch a romantic-comedy.

[lsiberian]

This was a fun movie to watch with the wife. Better than a lot of the dissapointing blockbusters. The best scene involves a poodle and an eagle.

[Jon Liu]

There were a good handful of scenes that I thought were pretty funny, the poodle and the eagle being one of them.

[wbassett]

My wife and I went to the theater to see this one. It was a thoroughly enjoyable rom-com that we both laughed and had fun watching.

Keep an eye on Ryan Reynolds... he's an up and coming big time leading male actor.

[moh]

I was pleasanatly surprised with this movie. Ryan Reynolds is a funny guy.