Leap Year
Leap Year
Rental and Snacks
Let’s face it. When the poster of a the movie gives away the ending, you know that romantic comedies have utterly given up even pretending that there is any suspense as to whether our heroes will find love together. Most aficionados of the genre of course could care less, since it’s the journey that makes the pleasure, rather than the destination. (Cut to 50% divorce rate, ’nuff said.) Anyway, when the journey involves Amy Adams, I am much more willing to ignore the more-preposterous-than-normal plot of Leap Year. I might even see Transformers 4 if she were in it – even without having seen # 2 or # 3 – though I would never think of her the same way again.
Here’s the premise: Fetching Relatable Heroine (Adams) has been with her Transparently Douchey Boyfriend (Adam Scott) long enough that the lack of a proposal means she’s going to take advantage of an Irish tradition wherein the woman can propose to the man every February 29. I describe her character as relatable only because Adams could make Elizabeth Bathory relatable. Her character is actually someone who would be better played by someone who can go from ice queen to soulful person like Emily Blunt or Gabrielle Union, rather than someone whose radiant face exudes kindness and earthy generosity. I no more believe that she puts Manolo Blahniks than I believe she kills baby seals on bar bets.
Anyway, bedecked in expensive duds, Adams tries to do her thing, meets Irascible Foreign Charmer Declan (Matthew Goode, as hetero as I have ever seen him) and sparks fly, obstacles amuse, chemistry sizzles, “dammit, man, give her a real kiss!” etc. Cut to the Big Choice and the Resultng Capitulation and you’re done. Set it all in the chilly gorgeousness of Ireland, accidentally reveal your teensy budget by limiting everyone’s wardrobe and recycling set dressing on two continent – yet despite it all, you leave the theatre smiling. That would be because of Adams and Goode, of course. You’re just smiling – most of the humor is chuckle-worthy and a good deal of the developments are more than unlikely: Why would a man who lost his woman to his best friend be a party to stealing the four-year girlfriend of a stranger? Well, he doesn’t. But you can tell he wants to.)
Adams and Goode have good comic timing, terrific enemy chemistry and very good “uh oh I kind of dig you” chemistry. As required by the Romance Formula Gods, Adams and Scott have next to no chemistry. Poor Adam Scott. I’m sure he must be a lovely person in real life, but there’s something about the set of his face that just screams “Buy a time share from me while I sext your girlfriend!”
Writers Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont have produced some middling work in the past (most lividly Made of Honor), but it may be the gentle hand of director Anand Tucker (Shopgirl) that kept his misogyny and old-fashioned notions of legitimacy in couplehood down to merely irksome. What we look for, in these stories with inevitable ends, are the whooping highs and lows of the journey. Adams and Goode and Tucker give it their all, but it Leap Year never quite gets to one of those Magic Moments, but it is a pleasant diversion nonetheless.
MPAA Rating PG
Release date 1/8/10
Time in minutes
Director Anand Tucker
Studio Universal Pictures
