A good romantic comedy only has to tick two boxes: depict two people falling in love and be funny about it. Simple as that. Yet the pen hovers past the first box in The Proposal, the latest offering from 27 Dresses director Anne Fletcher. It’s certainly funny despite being the very definition of conventional, but either I missed the part when Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock fell in love or it simply didn’t happen. Their comedic chemistry is abundant in spades, but never does their sham wedding amount to anything more than, well, a sham wedding. For a rom-com, this presents a problem. Or at least half of one.

Bullock should know better than anyone how to pull it off.  After all, this is an actress who has twice managed to evoke some chemistry from the emotional black hole known as Keanu Reeves (Speed, The Lake House). That’s no mean feat. To be fair, she does have her work cut out for her as workaholic devil-boss Margaret Tate, the chief editor for a New York publisher, whose only moments of intimacy come from the pages of a manuscript. When it’s questionable whether her blood would bleed green, it’s hard to imagine that this is a character about to fall in love. Unless it’s with Ryan Reynolds, who slaves away as Margaret’s tormented assistant Andrew. Even I’ll admit the guy’s the epitome of hunk; I think every woman in the audience developed a more heartfelt relationship with Reynolds long before Bullock forced it out.

Mind you, the lack of spark in their relationship is essentially the premise of the film. When faced with being deported back to Canada for not having a working visa, quick thinking Margaret announces that she’s engaged to Andrew, who must awkwardly smile and nod. Her egotistical immigration officer  (Denis O’Hare) doesn’t believe a word of it of course, expecting them both to fail the upcoming ‘how well do you know your partner’ test. Since Andrew already knows Margaret like the back of his eyelids, she reluctantly agrees to spend the weekend with his parents in Alaska so she can get to know him better. Realising that he finally has some leverage, Andrew only agrees to the proposal if Margaret appoints him as editor once they return.  Turns out that even if you’re  Sandra Bullock it takes blackmail to get Hollywood toy boy Ryan Reynolds to spend a night with you.

Upon arriving in Alaska, the film leaves behind the amusing The Devil Wears Prada set-up and turns into something resembling Meet the Parents. The two must keep up the lie in front of Andrew’s loving family, who at Margaret’s surprise, are local tycoons. It turns out Alaska is abundant with fun caricatures; Andrew’s delightfully over-the-top 90 year old grandma Annie  (TV Queen Betty White) is insistent the two get married whilst she’s still alive. It’s cause for concern, not only because the sham is getting out of hand, but also because the village minister Ramone  (Oscar Nuñez) works by night as a male stripper. As he thrusts to the sounds of ‘Relax’ by Frankie goes to Hollywood, it’s here where choreographer-turn-director Anne Fletcher is clearly having her fun.

It might be contrived and conventional, but Pete Chiarelli’s screenplay does provide some solid laughs. Most of the humour derives from the bitter wordplay between Reynolds and Bullock, who bounce off each other splendidly. Although, the comedy-baited awkward scenarios miss their mark more often than not, such as one tacky scene where Margaret improvises an Indian tribal dance to the crude hip-hop song ‘Get Low’. Then there’s also the attempt at a dial-up internet joke (already?).  If you’ve seen the trailer, you’d already know that  the funniest of these scenarios sees a very naked Margaret and very naked Andrew awkwardly fall over each other. It’s ironic since  the two never convincingly fall for each other. Bullock and Reynolds aren’t to blame; the problem is that the slapstick comedy is so methodically segregated from the gushy ‘I’m starting to fall for you’ moments, it never gets a chance to be genuine. As a result, The Proposal only ever amounts to a mildly enjoyed engagement that simply wasn’t meant to last.

The Proposal opens across Australia on June 18, 2009.

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