The Proposal (2009): Back to Square One

Directed by Anne Fletcher, The Proposal was the highest grossing romantic comedy of 2009, generating over $317 million worldwide. The plot centers on Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock), a Canadian editor-in-chief of a book publishing company in New York City, and Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds), Margaret’s assistant, who hopes to pursue his career as an editor. One day, Margaret finds out that she is about to face deportation from the United States as

her work visa is soon to expire. To resolve this issue, without any prior consulting with her assistant Andrew, Margaret spontaneously announces to the executive board that she and Andrew are engaged and their marriage will prevent her from being deported as it will grant her a legal residency status in the United States. Andrew is forcibly dragged to this plot, yet, he has his own agenda. He insists that Margaret make him an editor and publish the book he has been

recommending to her after their marriage. The couple then flies to Sitka, Alaska - Andrew’s hometown - to announce their engagement and make their wedding official to the families of Andrew in order to prove to a U.S. immigrant agent, who suspects that Margaret and Andrew are committing fraud. During their stay in Sitka, the two protagonists begin to learn more about each other and eventually fall in love. On their wedding day, Margaret, who realizes the value of family for the first time since her parents passed away when she was sixteen, makes a confession in front of Andrew's families and wedding guests that this wedding started as a business deal to avoid her deportation, and leaves Andrew behind. As Margaret returns to her office in New York to pack her belongings to return to her country, Andrew walks into the office and says that he is in love with her. The movie, while it recycles the typical plot of the romantic comedy, attempts to make unconventional and novel approach on the surface.

Unlike most romantic comedies, The Proposal sets in Sitka, Alaska. The use of iconic architecture as a cosmopolitan symbol is gone in this movie. Instead, the love story blossoms in a very rural, middle-of-no-where setting, in Alaska. Nonetheless, the movie does not completely disregard and jettison the value of a metropolitan setting takes in the romantic comedy. Although the plot mostly unravels in Sitka, the inception of the plot sets in New York City, again the place where all love begins.

Women’s fashion is also an integral element in The Proposal. As it has always been in the twentieth and twenty-first romantic comedies, since the release of Pretty Woman, women’s success and happiness are associated with fashion and consumer culture. Margaret’s office look, composed of the iconic 1940s look of Katharine Hepburn, with added deep cleavage, a nude Prada purse, and black Christian Louboutin heels, and her travel fashion, which comprises an orange Birkin burse by Hermes, Louis Vuitton luggage, Prada sunglasses, and another pair of Christian Louboutin peep-toe pumps, imply her financial independence and affordability for such high-end wardrobe.

One of the most unorthodox gender representations in this movie is the reversal of roles at workplace. Traditionally, women played the submissive and accompanying roles who assist and attend to their male authorities. In this movie, the role of man and woman is reversed:

Margaret takes the authoritative, demanding, and powerful boss whereas Andrew becomes the assistant whose clock revolves around Margaret’s, delivering her coffee and answering the phone.

The reversed role play makes a strong statement in the opening scene. The movie starts with Margaret in her workout clothes, working out while reading a book manuscript. On the other hand, Andrew, half naked, is in his bed. This scene is strikingly contrasting to the opening scene of Pretty Woman, in which the camera focuses on the female body for its voyeuristic purpose. Women are no longer portrayed as sexual icons whose bodies are subject to scopophilic commodification.

Margaret’s tone of speech also validates the radical reversal of role play in this movie.

Not only does she walk into her colleague’s office with confidence to fire him, but also, she

positions herself in the traditional men’s shoes, especially when she informs her supervisor that she and Andrew are getting married:

Edwin: Isn’t he your secretary?

Andrew: Assistant.

Margaret: Executive assistant. Secretary. Titles. But wouldn’t be the first time one of us fell for our secretaries, would it, Edwin?

Margaret’s points that men with power used to have affairs with their female secretaries, and that it should not be any different for women in the same level of position clearly

demonstrates the new paradigm shift and the rise of the modern woman.

The portrayal of Margaret as a radically different modern individual continues at the beginning of the movie. After Andrew makes a deal with Margaret on his promotion to the editor after their marriage, he makes Margaret to propose to him on her knees:

Andrew: Ask me nicely to marry you. You heard me. On your knees.

Margaret unhesitantly complies to Andrew’s request. Although she performs his request in a light and sarcastic manner, she does get on her knees, on one of the busiest streets of New York City, and proposes. This is probably the first time that a woman proposes, on her knees, to a man, just like thousands of men have done, in Hollywood movies.

Needless to say, Margaret takes the image of a successful modern woman who has fiscal independence and does not need a man to support her. She does not see the need of husband, love, or romance. Nevertheless, Margaret, too, is transported to the role of insecure woman settled with and tamed by her man:

After nestling in the bountiful bosom of family and some expected naked slapstick with Andrew, Margaret melts. He mans the ramparts, she lowers her defenses. He thrusts, she parries. He chops wood and loses his shirt. She loses her cellphone and ditches the heels. He rescues her, scooping her out of the water after she falls from a boat. She shivers and smiles and tears up as she talks about her tragic past, revealing the sad little girl who’s long been hidden behind the cruel disguise of a sensationally successful professional adult.Ding-dong the witch is soon dead and in her place, well, here comes the bride (Dargis, The New York Times, June 18, 2009).

As the movie advances, Margaret’s bossy trait is replaced by the domestic wife role.

Andrew used to bring coffee to Margaret every morning at work. However, now it is Margaret who brings breakfast to his bed in Sitka. As Margaret begins to find herself in love with Andrew, she becomes a tamed shrewd. Her tone of speech changes, from adamant and authoritative to soft and gentle.

The movie reiterates the traditional gender role play at the end. It is Andrew who pops the question in the real proposal. Earlier in the movie, when Margaret proposes on her knee, she takes the lead because it is meant to be a business transaction, not a real knot that ties them into a marriage. When Andrew comes back, proposes and rescues her from being deported, Margaret becomes the feminine type, breaking into tears, whispering: “I’m scared.”

The film brings the audience back to square one of the traditional gender representations, by highlighting the society’s expectations on classic gender roles and responses to reversed stereotypes. Just like it was the case in The Devil Wears Prada, Margaret, the authoritative figure is seen as an unaccommodating and unfriendly figure. As Margaret walks into the office at the beginning of the movie, one of the coworkers sends a message that reads “It’s here!” and everyone acts preoccupied with his or her work to avoid eye contact with Margaret. A few minutes later, Andrew sends a message to his team to inform that Margaret is about to walk out

of her office: “The witch is on her broom!” No one sees Margaret as an individual who is good at what she does and has made a successful career; rather, she is seen as an unpopular, unwanted, evil “witch” and a thing that is associated with “it.”

The Proposal, while it attempts to position Margaret as an independent, empowered

woman who needs neither romance nor man to make her a complete being, succumbs to reiterating and recycling the common traits of the romantic comedy, by guiding Margaret to become a woman whose insecurity and loneliness terminates upon being rescued by a man.

CHAPTER 6: FINDINGS

“I want to define success by redefining it.

For me it isn’t that solely mythical definition - glamour, allure, power of wealth, and the privilege.

Any definition of success should be personal because it’s so transitory.”

- Anita Roddick