Leap Year

I was expecting a cute little romantic comedy when we started watching this. After all, it stars Amy Adams, and who’s cuter than Amy Adams? In this one she plays a successful young New Yorker who expects her cardiologist boyfriend to propose to her. When he doesn’t, she decides to fly over to Dublin, Ireland, where he’s attending a conference, and propose to him instead, because her father (played by John Lithgow, who’s in the movie for maybe five minutes) has told her about an old Irish tradition where women are allowed to do the proposing every four years on February 29.


This whole set-up feels a little forced to me, but its only real purpose is to get Adams’ character to Ireland, where all sorts of screwball things happen to prevent her from getting to Dublin in time to propose on February 29. The film turns into an Irish road movie as a handsome but surly innkeeper tries to help her get where she’s going.


Well, of course you know what’s going to happen. There’s not much in this movie you won’t see coming well in advance. However, the scenery is beautiful and the script is actually pretty funny in a gentle, old-fashioned sort of way, giving the best lines, of course, to some elderly Irish eccentrics. Although LEAP YEAR is a far cry from THE QUIET MAN, it reminded me a little of that film in its setting and attitude. Amy Adams is indeed cute, and Matthew Goode turns in a fine performance as the Irish guy. LEAP YEAR is a pleasant enough way to spend some time, as long as you’re not looking for anything more than that.