Leap Year (2010)

For those who know me, I am a complete and utter romance movie junkie. I am a girl, after all, for all my tomboyish ways. And I like a healthy dose of romance once in a while. I tend to be less choosy with romance movies than I am with other genres, because what I’m looking for in that genre is a happy ending, and a warm fuzzy feeling throughout. So when I saw this movie, I went in with an open heart, and only a tiny bit of skepticism…

The gist is that a young woman, Anna (Amy Adams), follows her boyfriend of four years, Jeremy (Adam Scott), to Dublin to propose to him on February 29th (as it is apparently an old Irish tradition that every leap year on that day women can propose to their partners). Of course there are complications, and due to bad weather she ends up in Wales. Eventually getting to Ireland, but not yet Dublin, she invests the help of an innkeeper, Declan (Matthew Goode), to get to Dublin so that she can propose on time.

For all intents and purposes it is the ultimate romance movie: girl meets guy, guy and girl hate each other, guy and girl go through a lot together and get to know each other, girl sees boy she wanted to marry initially, there is doubt, and guy and girl get together at the end. L’amour in the village.

It does have some rather entertaining scenes, however predictable they are: walking up to an old castle to see the view and retell the legend of the young lovers who once hid there; pretending to be married in order to stay in a bed-and-breakfast on their way to Dublin; making dinner together… it’s all pure candyfloss but not sweet enough to be sickly.

It’s the typical idea behind the “want vs need” scenario when writing a screenplay (I haven’t completely lost my film school education). As Anna says: “I realized I had everything I ever wanted. But nothing I really needed.” She wants to marry Jeremy, but finds that she needs Declan. Eventually that need inevitably grows into a want as well and everyone lives happily ever after.

As much as I am apparently berating this movie to no end, I did really enjoy it.

The characters, although typical 2-dimensional romance movie characters, aren’t boring. And both of the main characters are really quite likable. I personally liked Declan a little more than Anna, since I’m more like him in this film, but I never hated Anna either, which is somewhat new for me in this genre (I tend to take firm sides when I watch romantic movies). The setting is lovely and REALLY made me want to go to Ireland, and oh my giddy aunt the ACCENTS are incredible. I’ve seen Matthew Goode in a few films already, some of which I will definitely review here at another time, but here his accent was just do DIE for!

The dialogue certainly has its moments, and many of the things the characters say comes into play later on in the main theme of the movie as it progresses. All up I would have to say that’s truly a “gentle” movie to watch with friends or (if you really want to make the guy suffer) with your boyfriend. It’s entertaining, it’s sweet and it has a nice ending.

Ah, before I give my rating, the ending!

Again, typical get-together just like it’s meant to be and predicted by everyone from the start, but it’s done rather cleverly. Not only does Anna get rejected, she gets rejected twice. But it’s done within character, and actually so well that you feel rather sorry for her before it all comes around.

All in all a sweet, nice movie to watch by yourself when you have a broken heart and a huge box of candy, with friends for a girly night or to torture your boyfriend. I’d agree with IMDB on this one and give it a 6/10.

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