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Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock give us a lukewarm fuzzy in the bitter but cutesy the Proposal.

When I sat down to watch this movie, I texted a friend just beforehand about my caffeinated beverage: “The coffee is bitter, but that’s okay. So is Sandra Bullock.”

How prophetic, those words.

Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) has the worst boss ever, Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock, Premonition). He drinks the same coffee as her (in case hers gets spilled, there’s an extra). He is on ‘crazy eye’ watch after Margaret brutally fires an underling. He’s the guy who texts the whole office ‘the witch is on her broom’ whenever Margaret is out and about, so everyone can be forewarned. She’s cruel, cold, and treats him like crap on a regular basis. Too bad her visa is expired (did I mention she’s from Canada?), and in order to stay in the country, she has to get hitched. Andrew is just the lackey for the job.

Andrew may be angry about what his boss has put him through, but not so angry that he can’t come out from her blackmail without a little bit of a win: if she stays in the country, he gets promoted. There’s only one little detail that needs working out; they have to tell Andrew’s family. They fly to a little town in Alaska for the weekend to break the news at Granma Annie’s (Betty White, Ponyo) ninetieth birthday bash. What Margaret wasn’t prepared for is what makes this a romantic comedy: Andrew has a wonderful family. Andrew is wonderful. A little angry due to some tension with his father (Craig T. Nelson, Blades of Glory) and the hellish three years he spent working for her, but wonderful.

And Margaret? She’s an orphan who has learned to be okay with being alone in the world, and when Andrew’s family treats her like family, it changes the way she feels and acts. Through a series of comedic mishaps (naked run-in? Check. Awkward male erotic dancer? Check. Life or death situation? Check.) they begin to realize that neither one is what they thought - they are, both of them, better.

Of course, this fledgling romance is put to the test in a big will-they-won’t-they fashion, and the end result is… sweet, if not a little lackluster. Though this is a romantic comedy, and the therefore highly formulaic, the end kind of lacks the oomph of a Breakfast at Tiffany’s or even Clueless. The two characters may have found each other, but what they’ve found are two angry people who may be a little bit more cheery for having found someone but are still standoffish and distant. It was hard to connect with these characters who clearly, at the end, could barely connect with each other.

Bonus content is fairly decent on this set; there are deleted scenes, a gag reel, an alternate ending (which was just as blah as the given ending but with a token sassy black character uncomfortably wedged in) and commentary. Though the gag reel is fun, the commentary might as well not even be there. Who’d want to watch this movie more than once? Definitely not me.

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