My favorite film of 2009 was (500) DAYS OF SUMMER, a genuine and moving look at love and what some people will go through in order to find the person they are meant to be with. Cut to January, 2010, where we have LEAP YEAR, a romantic comedy so idle and formulaic that it seemingly slaps itself back into shape at the first sight of originality. In fact, as you have probably guessed, it is a film that, upon leaving the theater, my first thought was to immediately evoke thoughts of (500) DAYS OF SUMMER as an act of good will.
Nothing gels with LEAP YEAR. It probably has something to do with how break-neck the first third of the film is. In a matter of 15 minutes, we have Amy Adams playing Anna, a young woman who believes her long-time boyfriend, played by Adam Scott, is about to propose to her. He doesn’t, and promptly flies off to Dublin, Ireland for some reason. I’m sure it was explained, but editor Nick Moore’s scissors may have, actually, cut the explanation mid-sentence. Anyway, based on the convenient stories from her father, played in a shameful cameo by John Lithgow (don’t blink or you will, literally, miss him), Anna knows that on Leap Day, it is an Irish custom that women can propose to men. She grabs her passport and is on the next jet across the pond.
It’s at this point that cinematic convenience moves aside, and cinematic serendipity takes a crack at it. Anna’s plane is diverted, and she finds herself in a small inn somewhere in the scenic countryside of lovely Ireland. It is here she stumbles upon Declan, played by Matthew Goode, the keeper of the inn who, conveniently, has to get just enough money or else he is going to lose the tavern. Before you can say IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, the two are working their way cross country towards Dublin trying to survive each other as much as any other obstacles they may come across. That’s the first 15 minutes. Hope you can keep up.
These types of been-there-done-that romantic comedies are a dime a dozen, and it really takes something more than strict point-and-shoot camera work and two gifted actors giving satisfactory performances to stand out amongst the crowd. Director Anand Tucker (HILARY AND JACKIE and SHOPGIRL) has done better work before, and his lazy shots and handling of the chemistry between Adams and Goode could almost be construed as apathy. Sure, there are beautiful shots, and give the film an A for effort in shooting on location in the Ireland. As much as LORD OF THE RINGS was a travel guide for New Zealand, this film could be viewed as the same for Celtic island.
Unfortunately, we could just as easily have seen a travel guide show on Ireland on HD-Net, and we wouldn’t have been forced into paying attention to two characters who can’t stand each other. I should say, they can’t stand each other at first, because if you’ve seen even the most lackluster romantic comedies, you know these two will grow to care for one another, and his spontaneity will slowly but surely rub off on her coarse and organized outer shell, grabbing hold of the adventurer that lies within her and making her his. It’s cliche to say the story found in LEAP YEAR has been done before and better, but a film this full of cliches itself doesn’t deserve anything more.
Even the comedy here is so tired and maudlin that you almost, ALMOST, crack a smile whenever Matthew Goode acts out in a goofy nature or Amy Adams steps into ankle-deep cow manure. The discomfort that comes at a dinner scene where an old couple decide to make out might be the only, real laugh in the whole debacle.
Even the moments where the film begins to veer into uncharted territory, where you think there might be some hope yet that it offers something, anything, in the way of freshness or innovation, the film quickly rights itself back onto its banal and true-to-the-tracks course. Sure, Anna’s boyfriend doesn’t propose to her in the opening minutes of the film, and this alone might be justification to view him as a bad guy. However, throughout much of the rest of the film, we see him as this kind and caring man, and we begin to wonder who Anna will, ultimately choose. Dub this a spoiler alert, but this idea gets scratched like an old record. When it’s all said and done, Anna clearly has no choice but to leave this jerk and run back to her adventurous Irishman. Why? Because it’s a movie, and it’s lazy.
Much can, however, be said for Adams and Goode, who, by themselves, give beneficial performances. Adams turns the cute dial all the way to the right, even if you struggle to grasp what, exactly, her character’s deal is (she literally falls for the “heads I win, tails you lose” gag that, I think, cavemen were pulling on each other). Goode seems to be having vast amounts of fun with his role. Of course, you need something more than two parts to make a whole when crafting a decent romantic comedy, and the chemistry these two have just doesn’t cut it. There is almost an obnoxiousness to the pair when they are bickering, leaving thoughts of Gable or Colbert (or even Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel) prancing around your mind.
And, in the end, that is the best that can be said for a film like LEAP YEAR. It should garner warm feelings and give its audience a strong appeal towards its characters and their hopeful situations. What it does is make you dream for all the other films it never even comes close to touching. With beautiful scenery and strong actors leading the way, it is magnificent window dressing in need of a moving story to tell or emotional charm between those two leads, who, when you think about it, might actually be leading the way in separate directions. LEAP YEAR has neither, and you’re left with hoping that it is, at least, another four years before something this choreographed and predictable passes itself for genuine rom-com material again.
