Spring Break
Latest chick flick has an immigration sub-message
Kailyn Hart/Contributing writer
Issue date: 6/28/09 Section: Arts and Entertainment
To the DC metro area immigrant community, "The Proposal," featuring Hollywood's newest comedic duo, Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, is more than just another chick flick. It's plot is a real-life experience, not the creative expression of a film maker.
The movie is about a heartless powerful Canadian woman who bribes her eager young assistant to marry her to avoid deportation. The two-hour romantic comedy had audiences laughing out loud as head editor, Margaret Tate, played by Bullock, bullies her way into the heart of her assistant, Andrew Paxton, played by Reynolds.
Although Tate controlled Paxton in the beginning of the movie, the roles begin to turn when Paxton is informed about the prison time and a million dollar fine he will face if he is charged with matrimonial fraud. He demands a promotion and public release of his 'special' book. Tate agrees and they fly off to the flush Paxton family residence in Alaska.
Then, like most romantic comedies, they fall in love in three days. Viewers have fun watching the two fall in life on the course of their three-day journey, experiencing non-stop laughs, and catching Bullock's accidental nipple cameo.
Although the movie is primarily a romantic dream for chicks to fantasize about, it touches on a highly charged debate on how to solve the problem of 12 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States. In "The Proposal," the quick fix to this problem is quick marriage to a U.S. citizen.
Twenty-three-year-old Christian Fuller, of Southeast DC, said if someone paid him to marry her, he would definitely do it. "They would have to make it worth all the trouble though, you feel me," he added.
Not so, though, for 21-year-old Jamelle Lacey, a Maryland resident. "No amount of money or promotional bribe would get me to commit a felony," said Lacey. "I won't go to jail for anybody."
Mahop Cyrille was born in America, but grew up in Cameroon, West Africa. He said he can understand why someone would choose to marry a U.S. citizen to expedite getting a green card or citizenship.
"American citizenship can offer good living and good opportunities," he said. "Marriage can be helpful."
People are coming to America not only for opportunity but also to escape things like poverty, and violence, said Muhamad Amhar Ali, 42 , a legal immigrant from Somalia. Sometimes the wait for the immigration office to process an application can be a matter of life or death, he said. "Marriage to an American citizen is a quick way out," he said.
The movie is about a heartless powerful Canadian woman who bribes her eager young assistant to marry her to avoid deportation. The two-hour romantic comedy had audiences laughing out loud as head editor, Margaret Tate, played by Bullock, bullies her way into the heart of her assistant, Andrew Paxton, played by Reynolds.
Although Tate controlled Paxton in the beginning of the movie, the roles begin to turn when Paxton is informed about the prison time and a million dollar fine he will face if he is charged with matrimonial fraud. He demands a promotion and public release of his 'special' book. Tate agrees and they fly off to the flush Paxton family residence in Alaska.
Then, like most romantic comedies, they fall in love in three days. Viewers have fun watching the two fall in life on the course of their three-day journey, experiencing non-stop laughs, and catching Bullock's accidental nipple cameo.
Although the movie is primarily a romantic dream for chicks to fantasize about, it touches on a highly charged debate on how to solve the problem of 12 million unauthorized immigrants living in the United States. In "The Proposal," the quick fix to this problem is quick marriage to a U.S. citizen.
Twenty-three-year-old Christian Fuller, of Southeast DC, said if someone paid him to marry her, he would definitely do it. "They would have to make it worth all the trouble though, you feel me," he added.
Not so, though, for 21-year-old Jamelle Lacey, a Maryland resident. "No amount of money or promotional bribe would get me to commit a felony," said Lacey. "I won't go to jail for anybody."
Mahop Cyrille was born in America, but grew up in Cameroon, West Africa. He said he can understand why someone would choose to marry a U.S. citizen to expedite getting a green card or citizenship.
"American citizenship can offer good living and good opportunities," he said. "Marriage can be helpful."
People are coming to America not only for opportunity but also to escape things like poverty, and violence, said Muhamad Amhar Ali, 42 , a legal immigrant from Somalia. Sometimes the wait for the immigration office to process an application can be a matter of life or death, he said. "Marriage to an American citizen is a quick way out," he said.
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