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4 stars****

The reviews said you should avoid this movie; it isn’t funny and the script is poor. Contrary to that belief, it turns out it’s rather funny and the script is excellent throughout.

I saw this movie, almost by accident. I went to the cinema to watch ‘Orphan’ on it’s opening night, but the reels hadn’t arrived. Being at the cinema, it appeared sensible to choose something else to see. It couldn’t possibly be ‘Proposal’ because the reviews had made it sound quite poor and having seen the trailer I’d probably already seen all the funny moments. How wrong could I be? It still looked the best bet given some of the other titles on offer at the multiplex so I purchased my ticket.

Sandra Bullock is always entertaining. She’s an excellent actor, with many big films behind her, including Speed (&2), 28 Days, Crash, Miss Congeniality (&2) and The Devine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood. We won’t mention Fire on the Amazon, but we will give a nod to Demolition Man and The Lake House. Some reviewers want to typecast her, she’s either drama or she’s comedy. From the short list highlighted, she can obviously fit into either category without trouble.

Written by Pete Chiarelli, this screenplay excels in a genre that’s difficult to fill with consistent quality. It finds the right chuckle point on a regular basis throughout the movie. I admit to not laughing out loud, but many people in the theatre, did. The script goes to exactly where you expect it to arrive at points along the way. While some will argue this doesn’t set the audience a challenge, this wasn’t A Time To Kill, it was a light comedy. There weren’t any particular twists or surprises, except the local male stripper also worked as a waiter and a minister.

So what’s the movie about? An arranged marriage to escape deportation leads to odd family meetings and takes a high powered executive out of her comfort zone.

No doubt certain websites will spend too much time concentrating on Miss Bullock’s nude scene. She may have waited until she was almost 45 to strip properly for the camera, but with a figure like that, she need hold no fear of being upstaged by twenty year olds. While she had no doubt worked out hard before the clothes-less scene, it was more the comedy of the situation that made it work so well, not just one joke, but three rolled into a five minute blast. She’s obviously forgotten ‘Fire on the Amazon’ where she did go nude, alas, in heavy darkness!

With a budget of just $40 million, it’s returned almost $200 million to the theatres already, so DVD sales should send it well on its way to a substantial profit.

The reason this movie hits home is a combination of the excellent writing that allows the star to perform to exact comedy timing. Sandra and Pete with a good quality team around them, hit the mark. Go surprise yourself.