Director: Anne Fletcher
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Malin Ackerman, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White, Denis O'Hare, Oscar Nunez, Aasif Mandvi, Michael Mosely, Dale Pace, Alicia Hunt, Alexis Garcia, Anne Fletcher, Kortney Adams, Chris Witney
Cert: 12
Region: B
Length: 108mins
Video: AVC, 1080p, 2:35:1
Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Languages: English, English A.D, Italian, Spanish
Subtitles: English, English (HOH), Italian, Nederlands, Spanish, Portuguese, Svenska, Norsk, Dansk, Suomi, Islenska

She's far too old for him, surely.

You weren't there, man. You weren't there when Sandra Bullock first started out. Demolition Man and Speed were fun action blockbusters that showed us not all girlie-girl actresses from California (okay, Virginia) defaulted to starring in vapid rom-coms to make a living. Sadly the noughties saw Bullock doing just that by acting as producer on turgid star vehicles like Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks Notice, which, by the by, has exactly the same plot as The Proposal, albeit with the gender roles reversed. In fact, if it weren't for an out of the blue Best Actress Oscar nomination for The Blind Side you might be forgiven for washing your hands of Sandy B.

The makers of The Proposal, however, certainly won't be waving any flags come awards season. Yes, it's the usual tale of complete opposites being thrown together in a high-concept situation - in this case a forced marriage cooked up between book editor Margaret Tate (Bullock) and her unwilling assistant Andrew Paxton (Reynolds) after she discovers she's about to be deported to Canada - and the two enemies discovering they actually have stuff in common. We'd like to say 27 Dresses director Anne Fletcher gives the old Hepburn/Tracy dynamic a new spin but frankly that would incite much rolling over in graves.

On the plus side, Bullock and Reynolds remain strong performers in their own right, even when the former is required to dance around a campfire like a complete numpty with her fiance's grandmother while the latter has to deliver a squirm-inducing Jerry Maguire 'you complete me' speech come the final act (if you think that's a spoiler you really, really need to get out more). They just about hold the film together long enough for the audience to will away their natural instinct to vomit until the credits roll but, as is so often the case in these conveyor belt romantic 'comedies', the supporting characters only exist to set up embarrassing situations for the leads.

Example: When Margaret and Andrew arrive at his family home in Alaska with news of their hasty marriage plans, dotty grandma Betty White encourages them to tell the story of how they met in front of a huge party organised by mum Mary Steenburgen. Or how about a hideous hen night where Bullock is called up on stage to slap the butt of a stout Mexican stripper? Why not just have these people laugh and prod her with a stick for two hours? It would definitely be more believable; at no point do we feel like this family have any kind of real existence when they're not on screen. As for Malin Ackerman as Andrew's old college sweetheart Gertrude(?!), instead of making a play for him and shaking things up an extra peg or two, her sole purpose in the script is to sell his appeal to Maggie, who's obviously too dim to realise this for herself...despite working with him every day for 3 years.