The Proposal Review – Betty White rocks.it.out.

The interesting thing about “The Proposal” is that it’s produced by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind TV shows like “Fringe” and “Alias,” and movies like “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Star Trek,” and “Eagle Eye.” And then along comes “The Proposal,” and you’re going, that seems weird. It’s a romantic comedy amongst these other action projects.

But it works. Maybe that edginess is just what a romantic comedy needs to keep it from being mundane. Well, that and Betty White. At 87 years old, that girl rocks every line and steals every scene. I adore Betty White.

The story revolves around a high-powered New York City publisher named Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock). She reminds me of Meryl Streep’s character in “The Devil Wears Prada.” The staff at the publishing house email each other warnings when Margaret’s in the building, and her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) gets the same coffee for her at the same time every morning. In fact, he even gets the same coffee for himself, in case hers happens to spill and he needs a backup.

Basically, she strikes terror into everyone she comes near, including Andrew, although he seems to take it all in stride. But he’s thrown for a loop when she suddenly gets the bright idea to get married so she can avoid being deported back to Canada. He agrees, because he’s been at the company three years and she threatens to blackball him to other companies if he doesn’t go along with her plan.

To carry through with the ruse and convince the immigration officer it’s the real deal, the two travel to his parents’ house in Alaska to celebrate his grandmother’s 90th birthday. That would be the magnificent Betty White. You’ve probably seen the ad where she’s outfitting Margaret for a wedding dress and exclaiming, “It’s like an Easter egg hunt!” It really is a very funny scene.

Mary Steenburgen and Craig T. Nelson play Andrew’s parents, and there’s some discord between father and son that adds to the drama. Malin Akerman plays a former love interest of Andrew’s, and Oscar Nunez from “The Office” plays a kooky guy who does everything from be a male stripper to perform the wedding ceremony. A lot of the scenes are really predictable (can we just drop the male stripper scene from all romantic comedies, please?), but Bullock and Reynolds have fantastic chemistry, and he’s as sweet as can be. The kind of guy you’d want to have for a friend in real life.

There’s really not a lot new you can add to the romantic comedy mix, but “The Proposal” scores with the winning combination of Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds and Betty White.

NOTE TO PARENTS: There’s the big “naked scene” that you’ve seen in the ads. Bullock and Reynolds’ characters accidentally run into each other stark naked, and she falls on top of him. And yes, they really DO seem naked. No privates are shown, but she’s shown running around covering up her parts with her arms and hands. There’s a reference to a morning erection, a few kisses, and a scene with a male stripper played for laughs (but he gyrates a lot). Language includes “Ass,” “damn,” “boobs,” “sh*t,” “hell,” and “bitch.”

Images: copyright and trademark, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2009