“Would you please, with cherries on top, marry me?”

Justin’s rating: I would ask you, but I know that you’re too good for me.

Justin’s review: You know what I was thinking today? I was thinking about how I haven’t reviewed or even watched a good romcom in a while, and that was making me grumpy. I have feelings, you know. Romantic feelings, even. And those feelings need to be watered with the pretend stories of people who meet-cute, say quippy things, and eventually smoosh mouths against one another.

But instead of going with an unknown, I decided to pull off the shelf a favorite of both mine and my wife’s. The Proposal ended up being one of those rare movies that genuinely entertained both of us, with Sandra Bullock on her way out of the romcom circuit and Ryan Reynolds on his way up in Hollywood.

Bullock plays Margaret, a cutthroat, heartless book magnate whose entire floor of employees fear her greatly. On the front line of her ire is Andrew (Reynolds), her personal assistant who’s clearly too good for her or even this world. But all of this gets shaken up when Margaret finds out that she’s going to be deported to Canada because her work visa is gone — that is, unless she gets married ASAP.

Why be the boss if you can’t abuse your power? You see where this is going. With her back to the wall, Margaret strong-arms Andrew to accept a proposal so she can get a green card and keep her job.

But with some leverage on his side for the very first time in this relationship, Andrew has a few conditions. He wheedles a promotion to editor and a manuscript publishing out of the deal. The two of them jet off to Alaska for a long family birthday weekend and some last-minute cramming about each other’s lives so that they can pass an interview with a suspicious government agent on Monday.

It’s not like we haven’t seen this exact same template a thousand times before. There’s the somewhat antagonistic couple with a weird power imbalance that finds the script flipped when one of them takes the other to their respective home turf. There they fall in love against their initial intentions and probably end up settling in Green Acres or wherever that may be.

Tired of a formula as it is, it still works — especially when you have leads as charismatic as Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. They’re both masters of comedic timing, and their characters spar with wits and words through the first half of the film. By throwing them into Andrew’s slightly crazy and slightly rich family dynamic in the backwaters of Sitka, Alaska, it creates plenty of opportunities for hilarious situations and even a spark of potential romance.

I’ll see almost anything where Reynolds gets to cut loose with sarcasm, but I have a particular soft spot for Bullock as well. She was a romcom force to be reckoned with in the ’90s with a whole chain of hits, but I think she saved her absolute best for 2009. She’s kind of like a leaner, cuter Ebeneezer Scrooge who has her Teflon exterior chipped away by “dating” Reynolds and discovering a family life that she never had.

And they’re propped up by a tremendous supporting cast, including Betty White (!), Craig T. Nelson, and Mary Steenburgen as members of Andrew’s eclectic clan. And all of them almost get upstaged by The Office’s Oscar Nunez as the family’s effusive butler.

Despite the age difference — 12 years — Reynolds and Bullock look good together, whether they’re flirting, fighting, or finding out more about each other’s lives. They’re at each other’s level during this chaotic weekend, and that struggle (which turns to cuddles!) is made all the better for their strengths. Seeing them connect and bond over a childhood love of a rap song is the scene that sticks out to me the most, although I was never quite sold on the pairing.

At the end of the day, The Proposal is a rare romcom that’s far more “com” than it is “rom,” and that’s what makes it work.

Intermission!

• “It’s like Christmas in a cup.”
• THE WITCH IS ON HER BROOM
• Whole lotta Apple computer product placement
• “That your family?” “Yeah.” “They tell you to quit?” “Every single day.”
• “They’re looking for terrorists, not book publishers.”
• Downgrading to a smaller plane
• “Do you prefer to be called Margaret or Satan’s Mistress? We’ve heard it both ways.”
• Five second rule on luggage that falls into the ocean
• “You know I can’t swim!” “Hence the boat.”
• “She comes with a lot of baggage.”
• “For you, that’s going to require that you stop snacking on children as they dream.”
• Did you ever think that a proposal story could be competitive? Here you go.
• There is no way that a little purebred dog like that was a rescue
• The Baby-Maker Blanket
• That’s a lot of blackout curtains
• Why’s he sleeping on the floor when there’s a little loveseat couch there?
• Eagle vs bird
• “Take the doggie! Take the doggie!”
• Hug time, hug time — he booped her butt
• “OK, pluck my eyes out.”
• She frees the shrimp
• Canoe therapy
• “What is it with you and this dog?”
• “Balls? That’s what came to your heart?”
• The internet cafe (dial-up!) computer that takes dimes
• What’s it like to have Betty White feel you up?