This year, Bullock won “Best Movie Actress” at the PCA. On the PCA website it does not clarify if she won for a specific movie or for her total work last year as a whole (where she appeared in movies like “The Proposal” and “The Blind Side”), but her performance in the latter has garnered her both commercial and critical success. In fact, “The Blind Side” may actually help to win Bullock an Oscar nomination. 

Bullock has already had an exciting awards season. She was recently nominated for a Golden Globe for “The Blind Side” for  “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.” (For the record, she was also nominated for “The Proposal” as the best actress in a comedy.) Bullock was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild award for “The Blind Side.” And now Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly has predicted that she’s likely to garner her first Academy Award nomination this year for that movie.

However, as the Chicago Tribune points out, Sandra Bullock has a major problem to overcome. Susan King writes:

If Sandra Bullock is going to win a best actress Oscar for her role in “The Blind Side“ she may have one major obstacle to overcome: She’s too popular.

In that piece, King makes the solid argument that mainstream actors are frequently snubbed at the Academy Awards.  That fact is discouraging because it would be nice to see Bullock recognized for a popular role that she absolutely excelled in.

Although I haven’t seen all the performances receiving Oscar buzz for best actress this year, I am still pulling for Bullock to land her first nomination. In the past, she made some bad mainstream movies. However, in “The Blind Side,” she made a great one and broke an industry record to boot. As Entertainment Weekly reported:

Bullock is now the only actress ever to have a film marketed with her name solely above the title (i.e. based on her star power alone, and not a franchise or tentpole picture) pass the $200 million mark in domestic gross.

Best of luck, Sandra.

Well, maybe she’s found some.

On paper, “The Proposal” sounds like more of the same; another concept-driven, fish-out-of-water romantic comedy. And that it is, but thanks to a solid script and winning performances from Bullock and co-star Ryan Reynolds, this coming weekend offers one of the better romantic comedies of the last few years.

“The Proposal” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but built around the expected are a number of entertaining, very well written and performed scenes which create a believable central relationship you root for. The laughs are consistent, and though some are milked from contrived situations, most are earned honestly through realistic reactions from well-developed characters. Beneath it all beats a heart of the best kind; the kind that sneaks up on you in the end as if to say, “Who knew I cared this much?”

Sandra Bullock is Margaret Tate, the editor-in-chief of a high-end, New York publishing firm. She’s also a stone cold witch who intimidates and bullies her assistant associate secretary, Andrew (Reynolds), to the point that not once during the three long years he’s worked for her has he been able to lower his guard in her presence. She’s brittle, demanding and impossible to please even when he accomplishes the impossible, anticipating her every want and need.

Margaret is Canadian and the combination of her arrogance and ambition has suddenly put her on the fast-track to deportation. Out of legal options, the only way to keep her job and stay in the country is to marry a U.S. citizen. Enter Andrew, who pops his head in the door and finds himself the only available male in the room.

Obviously Andrew’s doesn’t want to marry Margaret, but the reality is that if she’s deported her replacement’s sure to fire him making the years of hell under her all for nothing. She’ll be in Canada and he’ll be out on the street starting from scratch. With their fates tied and a suspicious immigration official sniffing around, they have only a few days to get to know each other well enough to pass muster as a married couple. So it’s off to Sitka, Alaska, and a weekend with Andrew’s family and a whole lot of deception.

First off, I want to warn our entitled Leftist friends used to fifteen years of Hollywood catering to their mean-spiritedness that there are no Sarah Palin jokes. *so sorry* Secondly, Thank God there are no Sarah Palin jokes. Not one. She’s never mentioned or even hinted at.  Whether this was the product of rare Hollywood restraint or having the film in the can before the election, who knows, but Thank God there are no Sarah Palin jokes because my wife would’ve walked out and then there’s no review.

Another pleasant surprise is how generous the film is in portraying the citizens of Alaska. Audience expectations and those of Margaret are constantly played for laughs as, one by one, tired stereotypes of small town Americans falls by the wayside. In other words, unless you’re one of those entitled Leftists, no spell-breaking sucker punches await.

The plot and situations are boilerplate. If you’ve seen Bullock’s 1995 “While You Were Sleeping,” you’ve pretty much seen second and third act of this. But Bullock’s charm and some excellent dialogue really make things soar over the seen-it-all-before spots. The biggest revelation, however, is Ryan Reynolds who’s absolutely marvelous, perfectly underplaying every moment for maximum laughs. Other than as Chris O’Donnell’s replacement, Reynolds has never hit my radar before, but this may well be remembered as his breakout performance.

“Office” fans will recognize Oscar Nunez, who has a few choice scenes as Ramone, Sitka’s storekeeper and exotic dancer, Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenburgen aren’t given enough to do as Andrew’s parents but still manage to make an impression, but in the film’s more tiresome scenes – even the great Betty White can’t add much to the played-out earthy old grandmother character.

As a quick aside, I want to mention an impressive and marvelously crafted subplot involving Andrew’s former girlfriend Gertrude, who’s played by Malin Akerman. Without a moment of melodrama or word of exposition, screenwriter Peter Chiarelli creates a very real and poignant choice for Andrew. There’s even a moment when he clearly has this choice to make but never once is it played the way you expect or have seen so many times before. And there are at least three beautifully crafted, memorable scenes; poignant, funny, heartfelt…

Chiarelli had to work within the necessary conventions of a marketable genre, but still a real talent shines through.

Then in July of 2007, New Line grabbed an almost identical $27.47M with the opening weekend of the female-skewing Hairspray, translating to $118.87M domestic. Also Enchanted, starring Amy Adams, was a hit for Disney over the holidays reaching $127.8M domestic.

In 2008 the game changed forever as women began flexing their box office muscle in a big way. 27 Dresses (Fox), starring Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy, debuted to $23M in January on its way to a domestic cume of $76.8M. Then came the Digital 3D phenomenon Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds (Disney), which enjoyed a meteoric $31.1M opening 3-day, finishing with a tween-fueled $65.2M. The all-girl comedy Baby Mama (Universal), starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, came along in the spring with a nifty $17.4M opening, finishing at $60M.

Then the all female Fantastic Four”  landed – Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis – in mega-hit Sex & The City. After a mind-boggling $57M opening weekend, the HBO-to-big screen adaptation kept selling tickets to the tune of $152.2M in the US, becoming 2008’s eleventh-best grossing movie.

In fact, you can make a strong argument that 2008 releases Twilight ($187.9M cume), Mamma Mia ($144.1M cume), Beverly Hills Chihuahua ($94.5M cume) and High School Musical 3 ($90.5M cume) were also chick flick hits. Here’s a complete list of last year’s biggest female-skewing movies.

The cast of TWILIGHT

TOP GROSSING CHICK FLICKS OF 2008
Twilight – $187.9M cume
Sex & the City – $152.6M cume
Mamma Mia! – $144.1M cume
Beverly Hills Chihuahua – $95.5M cume
High School Musical 3: Senior Year – $90.5M cume
27 Dresses – $76.8M cume
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds – $65.2M cume
Baby Mama – $60.5M cume
The House Bunny – $48,2M cume
Made of Honor – $46M cume
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 – $44M cume
The Secret Life of Bees – $37.7M cume
Definitely Maybe – $32.2M cume
The Other Boleyn Girl – $26.8M cume
TOTAL 2009 GROSS – $1.14 billion cume

Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Anniston and Jennifer Connolly in HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

The first chick flick out of the gates in 2009 was the Kate Hudson-produced Bride Wars (Fox), which should finish its US theatrical engagements with about $60M. He’s Just Not That Into You (Warner Bros), based on the bestseller co-written by Sex & the City writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, is holding up extraordinarily well in its second weekend. I am projecting a #2 finish for the 4-day with a possible $23.9M and a new cume just shy of $60M. Meanwhile, Confessions of a Shopaholic, one of this week’s wide openings, seems destined for $20M or so by Tuesday morning.

When all is said and done, 2009 could be an even bigger year for female-geared releases. Here’s how the remainder of the year lays out.

February 20 – Fired Up (Sony)
Two popular high school guys quit football to join the cheerleading team.

February 27 – Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert (Disney)
The title says it all. Every tween girl in America will see it at least once.

March 20 – Sunshine Cleaning (Overture)
Amy Adams (Enchanted) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) star in this Grand Jury Prize nominee from last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

March 27 – The Accidental Husband (Yari Film Group)
Uma Thurman stars as a radio talk show host who dishes out relationship advice.

April 8 – Hannah Montana: The Movie (Disney)
The world’s biggest teen star is back on the big screen.

May 1 – Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Warner Bros)
Matthew McConaughey stars as a bachelor who contends with past girlfriends at his brothers wedding. Also starring Jennifer Garner (Catch & Release), Lacey Chabert (Party of Five), Emma Stone (The House Bunny) and pop star Christina Milian.

May 8 – My Life in Ruins (Fox)
Nia Vardallos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) stars in a romantic yarn set in Greece.

May 8 – Wild Child (Universal)
Emma Watson from Nancy Drew and Hotel for Dogs plays a Malibu princess who must adjust when she is sent to boarding school.

June 12 – The Proposal (Disney)
Rom-com starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds.

July 10 - I Love You Beth Cooper (Fox)
Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) shows the nerdy valedictorian of her high school class the night of his life.

Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl on the set of THE UGLY TRUTH

July 31 – The Ugly Truth (Sony) – Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler star as television morning show workers who test their relationship theories (and, just a hunch, fall in love).

August 7 – Julie & Julia (Sony)
Nora Ephron is writer/director of this movie based on a Julia Child memoir and starring Meryl Streep as the famed TV chef.

September 25 – Fame (MGM)
A remake of the 1980 film about a New York High School for the Performing Arts.

November 20 – New Moon (Summit)
The sequel to 2008’s mega-hit Twilight.

2-time Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis and Penelope Cruz in a scene from NINE

November 25 – Nine (Weinstein)
Chicago director Rob Marshall adapts the Tony Award winning Broadway musical starring Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren and Academy Award nominees Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson.

Untitled Nancy Myers Project – December 25
The writer/director behind such chick flicks as Baby Boom and Something’s Gotta Give is set to star Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.