It was something of a miscalculation to show outtakes and bloopers from The Proposal before the movie began. Outside of what I may think once the film is through, if I’m laughing at the bloopers it might be a misleading hint that what they left in was pure gold. Reversely, if you don’t laugh, it may be a sad hint at things to come. Well, in the case of The Proposal, the show kicks off with some horribly, unfunny bloopers and the main show follows with what’s basically a rather unfunny script played up by the fact that the actors themselves are rather charming. The Proposal, quite simply, is as predictable as the sunrise. There are, however, some rather accidental signs of life.

The plot of The Proposal hangs on the rather ridiculous contrivance that anyone would buy for a minute that the uptight book editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), whose employees refer to using adjectives of the hat and broom variety, would even in a million years harbour romantic thoughts about her assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds), let alone follow up on them with a secret office relationship and engagement. The second contrivance is that Andrew, no matter how desperate to hang on to his crappy job answering phones and schlepping lattes, would ever respond in the affirmative to Margaret’s single-handed blow to work place sexual harassment saying marry me or your fired.

Now to be fair, she meant that Andrew’s loyalty would see him fired when the new Editor took over and replaced him, but still Andrew could have went to HR and said here’s what Ms. Tate told me and enjoyed some job security. But then there would have been no movie. There would have been no dishevelling on Andrew’s part as he tries to turn a frown upside down and get an editor’s position out of the deal. There would have been no trip to Alaska to visit Andrew’s uproariously eccentric family, who are basically the Kennedy’s of Alaska as Margaret observes. But considering all that Sarah Palin did for the state last fall, does Alaska really need to be the butt of more jokes? Best I could say is that at least there was no moose eating out of the garbage.

Also on the note of being spared fundamentally strained comedy ideas, we’re not given an elaborate and goofy supporting cast of extend family members with hideously over-the-top antics. The cast is more or less contained to Mary Steenburgen’s mom, Craig T. Nelson’s dad and Betty White’s Grandma, and it’s White who’s actually the saving grace of the film. She’s no rapping granny, nor is she purposely vulgar in order to get laughs at the expense of being an older person in a young person’s world. She actually feels the most genuine, especially over Nelson’s fire and brimstone Pa and Steenburgen’s overcompensating Ma. Bullock is a believable shrew with a stone heart and a golden middle and Reynolds is a perfectly affable leading man.

Moreover, I was genuinely surprised as to where the film might be going. Not the exact destination per se, because if you’ve seen one of these movies you’ve seen them all. What actually surprised was that the root from beginning to end, didn’t actually seem that conventional. Of course, when Margaret and Andrew kiss, sparks fly. I mean, why would a no-nonsense woman like Margaret Tate put up with the Hemingway wannabe smart ass if the sparks weren’t there to begin with? Throughout much of the film, even in the midst of its most clichéd and hackneyed jokes, I was kind of convinced they were going to go a different route. They didn’t, and I get it, but for a minute there, The Proposal had my attention.

So to review: The Proposal is unfunny, clichéd, has some good acting, a few misleading surprises, but an ending so utterly conventional it could have spewed from the Mac Book Pro of the laziest Hollywood hack. Sounds like an average film to me.