Leap Year (2010)

Director: Anand Tucker; Screenplay: Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont; Cinematographer: Newton Sigel

Cast: Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott

    Let me just start by saying that I usually avoid movies such as this one. They tend to be overflowing with clichés and other disasters like bad acting and etc. I wasn't quite sure why I chose this movie but I just had to find out. So here goes...Anna is your usual "stick up her arse" kind of girl living in Boston. She has a good job, six hundred dollar shoes and a cardiologist for a boyfriend. Basically her life is pretty posh. And now to top it all, she wants to propose to her boyfriend. According to an old Irish tradition a woman can ask a man to marry her on the 29th of February when it's a leap year. That's what Anna plans to do. Only her journey to Dublin is filled with bad luck to say at least. Things get even worse, when a handsome devil named Declan is added to the disastrous equation. 

    Like I said before - not my cup of tea. Before even watching it I had a strong preconception about it. My general opinion was, that it's probably a piece of crap. But I couldn't be more wrong. I was surprised to see, that it turn out to be something entirely different. Leap Year didn't give me that nagging feeling what I usually get, when I watch movies that have fairly predictable endings. So to say it short, I had no problem watching it. One of the thing I wasn't sure about when I started watching Leap Year was the actress portraying Anna. Never been a huge fan of Amy Adams. My first thought was that she's going to ruin the already bad movie for me. But as it turned out, she actually delivered a good performance and made it somewhat dynamical. Anna was a bit blue eyed and expected the best out of people. I didn't know if I should be cheering for her or just feel sorry. Adams did a good enough job with this role, which is why I can't say anything bad about her performance. 

    So that out of the way I wasn't so sceptical about Leap Year anymore. One of the best things about this movie was the breathtaking Irish countryside and the amazing scenery. You could make an entire nature documentary of the scenes which show the landscape. When I said one of the best thing was the countryside, imagine how good it would look when added a true Irishman. Declan was the arrogant and grim bad guy of the story. Well, it started out with him being the bad guy but as the story evolved, he started to show his flaws and you saw the cracks in his cool and composed demeanor. I actually liked him best out of the bunch. Maybe it's just the fact that I like troubled and broken heroes. Or it could be the little detail that he was played by Matthew Goode. Add the oh-so sexy Irish accent and the scruffy look... Say no more. But to leave all that aside, he gave Declan many layers and added more dimensions. Fortunately he was the opposite of the usual romantic comedy male fit. 

     Overall the story was cute but maybe a bit far fetched. It was your typical boy meets girl story, with the addition of the already existing boyfriend and the itsy-bitsy fact, that they only knew each other for a couple of days. I didn't find it very believable, that after a four year relationship, Anna suddenly realised that her current boyfriend, whom she planned to propose and move in together, wasn't the one. Really, it took her four year and a hot Irish guy to figure it all out? Anyway that was where the story fell short for me. Perhaps I'm not a mushy romantic after all. But I liked how "read between the lines" the romance was and it kind of kept me wondering about the end. The other supporting characters weren't a big support. You actually hardly see them around, as the story concentrates on Anna and Declan. I found Jeremy, the boyfriend, rather annoying. 

     To sum it all up - the movie was crafted in a way which carefully avoided the bad cliche hang ups and an old and used up story was perfectly laced with at least one strong character and the staggering Irish countryside. But even Leap Year couldn't make me change my opinion on romantic comedies and I'm most definitely not taking that road again soon.                         

written by: Frank

links: IMDb