Leap Year – Review

Amy Adams gallops as Anna, the control-freak house designer that desperately longs to get engaged. When Jeremy (Adam Scott) leaves for Dublin to go to a conference, he leaves Anna wanting to seal the deal with him. She ends up flying across the Atlantic to propose to him on Leap Day, but instead runs into disastrous adventures as she teams up with the rude Declan (Matthew Goode), uncovering that spontaneity sometimes leads to good things. Leap Year meshes together every other stereotypical romantic comedy formula together to provide a train wreck of a movie recently catapulted into theaters.

The best thing about the film is it’s backdrop, set through the lush lands spread across Ireland. The direction of Shopgirl helmer Anand Tucker is pressed upon one-too-many close ups that almost completely cloaks this film into a better lit episode of a daytime soap opera. The same can go with the performances of the entire cast, so one dimensional that your surprised that even a couple of these characters could exist in real life or more so stand each other.

Adams is normally a delight on screen, but seems to be doing nothing more than collecting a paycheck as she tries to high heel walk her way through the bland role. Once she’s thrust into forming a certain kind of chemistry with co-star Matthew Goode as the possible love interest, the only kind they’re able to make is mud. In typical stereotypical romantic comedy fashion, the real love interest is shoved to the side to make way for the supposed ‘dream guy’ but once the movie’s over with the only kind of men you see that Anna attracts are the jackasses of the world.

Leap Year falls into the category of sloppy and badly put together romantic comedies that should never see the light of day in a theatrical release. Do yourself a favor and instead of watching this film go and watch a recent romantic comedy like 27 Dresses, at least that one is easier to swallow.

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