#Review: Leap Year
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's Awesome Applesauce: Charles Quevedo
When I went to go see the movie, LEAP YEAR, I wasn't expecting to be the only person under the age of 50. 
I walked into the theater and and found myself among ten elderly couples (possibly in their 60's & 70's). In the semi-darkness, all I saw was grey hair. I was expecting a younger audience. I guess that this is the majority demographic for this movie. Let's just say that I was kind weirded out by it.
Anyways... onto the review.
At the beginning of the movie, we see Anna Brady (played by actress, Amy Adams), a successful Boston real estate "stager" (someone that furnishes and decorates homes to be more presentable for sale on the marketplace). She's a red-headed Irish cutie who is materialistic and obsessed with her social status. She is dedicated in her career and knows what she wants in all aspects of her life. Anna has wealthy friends who she spends time with . She also has a cardiologist boyfriend, Jeremy (played by actor, Adam Scott), who she has been dating for four years. Jeremy is Anna's mirrored image and just as successful in life as she is. They seem to be made for other. Fate seems to be smiling on Anna. When Jeremy doesn't propose to Anna (like she expected) and heads off to Dublin, Ireland to attend a medical conference, Anna impulsively hatches a plan. Because of an old silly Irish tradition where women are permitted to propose to men on Feb. 29th (also known as "Leap Day"), Anna decides to fly to Dublin and and take advantage of it.
This is where Fate twists suddenly for Anna. The plane Anna is on flies into a storm and is forced to make an emergency landing in Cardiff, Wales. Since there are no passenger ships going to Ireland, she manages to to hire a fisherman to ferry her there and is dropped off on the beach of a small Irish town... a long way from Dublin. Anna finds refuge at the local pub where she meets handsome, but crude barkeep/inn keeper/cab driver, Declan (played by actor, Matthew Goode) and the town's superstitious drunks. From the very sight of Anna's $600 shoes and her Louis-Vuitton luggage, Declan isn't impressed and gives her a hard time about the simplest information she requests. The two get on each other's nerves immediately. Due to the train and bus services being discontinued in that town long ago (so long, nobody remembers the last time), Anna decides to rent a room for the night and make her way to Dublin in the morning. That night, Anna tries to charge her phone and accidently black out the entire town. Declan is furious, his dislike for Anna growing.
The next morning, we discover that Declan is struggling financially as men are threatening to take away his kitchen. He's given 10 days to get the money to save his pub. Needing the money badly, Declan makes a deal with Anna for him to drive her to Dublin (even though he hates that city with a passion... the reason is later disclosed at a later time in the movie). Traveling to Dublin in Declan's broken-down tiny car (a car so tiny, it looks like a circus clown car), they have many obstacles that delays them: cows on the road, car being wrecked, a drive-by robbery, a bar fight, missing the train and dancing at some strangers' wedding.
The physical slapstick humor in this movie reminded me of the kind that I would see on "I Love Lucy" episodes. Adams isn't exactly on the genius level of Lucille Ball when it comes to comedic antics, but there's a certain charm about her that makes her likable.
LEAP YEAR is a predictable "chick flick" movie. We've seen this type of romantic comedy before -- two people that dislike each other are thrown together by Fate to spend considerable time with other on the road, their defenses slowly being chipped away until they eventually fall in love with each other (the movies, "Overnight Delivery" and "The Sure Thing", come to mind). It was fun to watch Anna and Declan argue and occasionally take stolen glances at each other. Even watching the two characters deal with the sexual tension they both felt when they're forced to share a bed brought a smile to my face. But I'm not sure I was totally sold on Adams and Goode's on-screen chemistry. They seemed to go through the "paint-by-numbers" procedures that we usually see in romantic comedies -- boy meets girl... boy hates girl... boy falls in love with girl. The happy ending of two of them kissing on a cliff (overlooking the ocean), is sweet, but not surprising. Don't get me wrong, LEAP YEAR isn't a bad movie at all. It still managed to make me smile and laugh at certain moments, but it didn't give me that magical tingle at the back of my neck that I've gotten with some other romantic-comedies (like Pretty Woman, Serendipity and Sleepless In Seattle).
It's only the superb acting from Amy Adams and the cinematography of the beautiful Emerald countryside that saves this movie from total mediocrity.
I give Leap year a 6.5 out of 10 rating.