Hollywood must churn out at least a dozen movies like The Proposal every year, cobbled together Frankenstein-style from the parts of countless older films. Romantic comedies (most of them, anyway) are as predictable and formulaic as horror films, with saucy grandmas sitting in for horny teens and fewer axe murders.
The Proposal feels particularly pre-packaged… it borrows its basic premise (couple falls in love while pretending to be engaged for immigration purposes) from Green Card, its lonely-woman-finds-a-family theme from While You Were Sleeping (complete with a nearly identical altar confession by Bullock) and its prickly boss/loyal employee dynamic from yet another Bullock film, Two Weeks Notice.