Prime Time: Leap Year (2010)

When I first saw Leap Year, a fair few years ago, I hated it. It was the worst mainstream rom-com I had seen in a long time, hampered by two leads without any chemistry, or even much likability. Revisiting it today, I hoped to enjoy it more. Enough time had passed, I started off my day in a fairly good mood, and I now at least knew who I was watching (because I wasn't that familiar with Amy Adams the first time around).

Anna (played by Adams) is a woman who has her life exactly as she wants it. Her job is setting up homes ready for being shown by realtors, her boyfriend (Jeremy, played by Adam Scott) is a medical professional who seems to share her life goals, and she has just applied to live in an exclusive apartment complex, if she and Jeremy are deemed suitable. But Jeremy seems to be dragging his feet when it comes to proposing marriage. It's been a number of years. So, while he is in Dublin for work, Anna decides to head over there, hopefully in time for February 29th, when tradition states that women can propose to men. The journey doesn't go according to plan, not at all, and she ends up struggling to get to her final destination with the help of cynical Declan (Matthew Goode).

There's still a lot here that annoys me just as much as it did when I first saw it. The script, by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, isn't as funny or sweet as it could be, although there are a few nice touches throughout, and it often feels like it's marking off a checklist of rom-com cliches. Adams and Goode play characters who, of course, dislike each other from the very start, only to start warming up to one another as obstacles create more and more delays on their journey. She likes everything planned, he's more easygoing about things. She's romantic, he's cynical. She likes the finer things in life, he's happy with his familiar comforts. You get the idea. It's a shame that nothing feels even slightly fresh, especially when you check the filmography of Kaplan and Elfont and realise that they have written a couple of fun comedies together (to hell with anyone who dislikes Josie And The Pussycats).

Anand Tucker has more variety in his filmography, and it's fair to say that romantic comedies aren't exactly where he shines. He puts everything in place (cast, cameras, score, etc) but doesn't manage to give it any life. This is a bowl full of wax fruit. It will fool most people who walk by it, but heaven help anyone who grabs an apple to take a bite.

Now that I am more familiar with the kind of roles that Adams has played in her career, despite her growing range over the past few years, it's easier to enjoy her in this. Organised, romantic, and optimistic, this is a perfect role for her to play, and it's a shame that they don't add more com in with the clumsy rom. Goode is alright, I suppose, but I prefer him in roles that let him be a bit more intense and/or strange. Despite his good looks, he's not suited to being a romantic lead (although I am sure many women may disagree with me there). Scott is as perfect as he usually is when called upon to play the guy who is nice enough, but also just a bit . . . douchey in one or two main ways. There are others, including Kailtin Olson and John Lithgow in small roles, but the focus is almost always on Adams and Goode, with Scott being shown or heard just often enough to remind us that he's the reason for the misadventures.

Leap Year isn't awful. It's just inferior to hundreds of other rom-coms you could watch instead. And it doesn't even manage to distract you from those better films while it's playing, which is never a good thing.

4/10

The movie can be bought here.
Americans can buy it here.