Leap Year: movie review
鈥楲eap Year鈥� is a comfy fantasy whose final destination is obvious.
In this film publicity image released by Universal Pictures, Matthew Goode, left, and Amy Adams are shown in a scene from, "Leap Year."
Jonathan Hession/Universal Pictures/AP
Amy Adams is such a likable actress that she makes the romantic comedy 鈥�Leap Year鈥� worth watching even though we鈥檝e seen it all before. The trick to these films is making our ride as enjoyable as possible even though the final destination is obvious.
In the case of 鈥淟eap Year,鈥� however, everything is obvious. Adams plays Anna, a real estate trendoid who has been waiting four years for her Boston cardiologist boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) to propose. Finally she hatches a plan: Taking advantage of an old Irish custom that permits women to propose to men on Leap Day, she trails Jeremy to a Dublin medical meeting. But bad weather waylays her and she鈥檚 forced to hire a surly innkeeper, Declan (Matthew Goode), to motor her across the Irish wilds to Dublin.
Guess what happens? Writer-director Anand Tucker isn鈥檛 very subtle about stacking the deck. Jeremy is an officious prig and Declan鈥檚 jaundiced eye rapidly turns misty. As he and Anna fight and fume their way across the countryside, we鈥檙e meant to chuckle at their disparities. He鈥檚 homespun and she鈥檚 a fashion setter. Our biggest belly laugh is supposed to come when she accidentally digs her expensive high heels into a cowpat. If you find this sort of thing funny, by all means make haste to 鈥淟eap Year.鈥�
The movie being set in Ireland, the filmmakers can鈥檛 resist piling on the blarney. There鈥檚 a fine line between blarney and baloney, though, and Tucker crosses it repeatedly. I suppose it鈥檚 a relief that, for a change, we have a movie set in Ireland that鈥檚 not about the Troubles. Still, this sort of barfly and brogue business might have given even John Ford pause. I kept waiting for leprechauns.
The chick-flick retroness of this movie could end up working in its favor commercially. Anna may be a highly successful career woman but, deep down, of course, her career means nothing to her. What she really wants is a dreamy Irish dreamer. If Jeremy had been shown to be a caring physician instead of a money-grubbing prig, this film鈥檚 game plan might have been revealed as the sham it is. 鈥淟eap Year鈥� is a corporate-era, back-to-nature scenario. Basically, it鈥檚 saying that the only way to find yourself is in the moors. It鈥檚 a comfy fantasy and Adams gives it a lyrical lilt, but in the real world, the sequel to this film would probably have Anna and Declan stepping around lots of cowpats.