Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Pete Chiarelli
Cinematographer: Oliver Stapleton
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Ryan
Reynolds, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson, Betty White
Studio/Run Time: Walt Disney Studios,
107 mins.
Never underestimate the power of
comedic timing
In trying to keep from being deported
back to Canada, successful New York book editor Margaret Tate
(Bullock) convinces her American assistant Andrew (Reynolds) to marry
her—then has to convince a skeptical I.N.S. agent that her wedding
plans are genuinely blissful. The couple heads to Andrew’s home of
Sitka, Alaska to meet his family, who persuades the couple to get
married there, not knowing their true intentions.
Margaret is the Miranda Priestly of the
publishing company, lording over her minions who cringe at her every
appearance and send each other messages like “The witch is on her
broom.” But in Alaska, she’s forced to play nice with the
slightly strange natives. 87-year-old Betty White steals most every
scene as Andrew’s eccentric grandmother, and The Office’s Oscar
Nunez performs a priceless striptease. But it’s the chemistry
between Bullock and Reynolds that gives the film its biggest laughs.
With nods to Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night and Billy Wilder’s
Some Like It Hot, the two actors give life to what should have been a
mediocre script at best. Bullock brings back what we loved about her
in films like While You Were Sleeping and Miss Congeniality. Her most
revealing scene comes when Margaret and Andrew physically collide
while both are stark naked—something you definitely wouldn’t have
seen in a Capra film, and when a small family dog is snatched by an
eagle because of Margaret’s carelessness, her pathetic attempt at
rescuing it is golden. The movie finds its heart by downplaying the
romance and highlighting the schtick, showing that slipping into
predictability isn’t always a bad thing.