The plight of the extremely overworked, underpaid, and greatly underappreciated corporate underling (a la The Devil Wears Prada) is alive and well in the romantic comedy The Proposal. It is hardworking assistant vs. terrible boss in typical hilarious fashion until, in an ironic twist of fate, the terrible boss finds herself in need of something from the hardworking assistant and learns that using people to get what you want is not always that easy and can sometimes carry a pretty hefty price tag.
Margaret Tate, book publisher extraordinaire, is used to getting what she wants, and she wants it all the time. She does not take no for an answer from anyone, including editors, best-selling authors, and especially from her assistant Andrew. Andrew is trained to be where Margaret wants him when she wants him there. He does everything she asks without asking questions or complaining (at least to her face). So far, using Andrew has been relatively easy for Margaret. She knows he is dedicated to his job because he wants to work his way up the corporate ladder… and being the best assistant for Margaret, no matter how impossible it may be, is the best way for him to get a promotion and get that much closer to landing the job he has always dreamed of having. As long as she has the ability to get him ahead in his career she knows he will do virtually anything she requires from him, and that has worked out pretty well for Margaret so far.
When Margaret learns that, due to an illicit trip to a book fair during the time her American visa was under review, she is being deported back to her home country of Canada, she at first panics. Her job and career and everything she’s worked for are suddenly threatened. She quickly turns to Andrew, though, the one whom she has always used to get what she needs… and sees an immediate solution. She will marry Andrew and therefore save her status as a U.S. citizen. She knows he will agree because otherwise he will lose his job along with her and everything he has worked for will be for nothing as well. Although this is the most horrible idea he has ever heard of, Andrew agrees. Margaret is successful in her blackmail and is once again successful in getting Andrew to do whatever she wants him to do.
Unfortunately for Margaret, marrying someone to simply save yourself from deportation is not quite as easy as it sounds. She and Andrew soon face the reality that they will have to live and act like a couple that is about to be engaged, which includes breaking the news to Andrew’s family. Margaret conveniently has no family to break the news to, so as a part of Margaret’s scheme they head up to visit Andrew’s family in Alaska and announce their “engagement” at his Grandma’s ninetieth birthday party. The entire trip is, at first, aside from being sidesplitting hilarious, all just part of a business deal for Margaret. It is obvious she couldn’t be more uncomfortable or out of place in the vast Alaskan wilderness, but it is necessary to achieve what she needs so she puts up with it, albeit begrudgingly. Andrew on the other hand is very comfortable in this style of living, a fact Margaret finds surprising. As Margaret sees clues about who his family is and their status in the community it becomes clear that he is not the person she at first thought him to be.
Although Margaret’s view of Andrew and the kind of person he is begins to change, she is still just as motivated to accomplish what needs to be done and go back home. She is at this point unconcerned about what impact Andrew announcing their engagement to his family will have. None of it matters specifically to her so she it doesn’t really matter how his mother, father, grandmother and other family and friends react to the news that their son is supposedly completely in love with and marrying the boss he has loathed and despised for the last three years.
After Andrew announces the engagement, though, something foreign to Margaret begins to happen. His family begins to take her in. They begin include her and do things for her that only family members would typically do for someone, and Margaret starts to feel something she has not experienced in a very long time: the closeness of family. This immediately terrifies her. She has grown so accustomed to being alone and only having to worry about herself and how to meet her own needs that the thought of having a life shared with anyone else is cause for panic. Life is so much different and seems so much easier when you don’t have to worry about anyone else.
This is not the way we were designed to live, though. God created us to live with other people, taking care of each other, and meeting one another’s needs before we worry about our own. If we are, as Margaret was, completely accustomed to only worrying about our own needs and using other people to help us get what we want, it would seem just way too complicated and difficult to let anyone truly into our lives to get close to us. But that is the way we were designed to live and it’s better. God did not will for us to spend our lives alone, but wants us to share them with the people around us. He wants us to be close to others in our physical life in the same way he wants us to be close to him in our spiritual lives.
Margaret realizeds that although it seems just easier and less stressful to live a life devoid of true care for other people, it’s simply not the way were meant to live. We need the care and concern of others just as much as we need people to care for. It may not be easy, and at times relationships can be more complicated than they seem like they’re worth, but in the end it’s better to live a life full of the blessings of family, friends and other people than to spend it simply and safely alone.
June 22nd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Didnt PG-13 movies used to be rated R? Arent we compromising in many ways placating hollywood.
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Good question, Susan.
Actually, PG-13 movies used to be rated PG, which is why another category was added. It was Hollywood that placated those who felt there should be such standards.
I come from a background where I was taught that going to the movies was wrong no matter what the rating was. Obviously, since I contribute to this site, my views have changed. Each individual must decide before God, knowing her or her weaknesses, what they will allow themselves to watch. If you want to avoid certain things, there are plenty of websites out there that will give you details on what is in the movie.
That’s not what Hollywood Jesus is about. We look beyond the ratings and try to find the good in movies. This philosophy is based upon the belief that God has put eternity in people’s hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11), and that as a result, we should see evidence of this in popular culture, including movies.