Leap Year is an American romantic comedy directed by Anand Tucker, set in Ireland… The story is a simple love affair between an American girl and a gruff Irishman, unfolding around a trip to Ireland… A rather disappointing film, with mixed success…
Anna (played by Amy Adams) lives in Boston with her boyfriend Jeremy, a leading cardiologist. Both lead smooth, flawless lives, almost too perfect… But there’s only one thing Anna seems to be missing: a proposal from Jeremy… a proposal that’s long overdue.
Fed up, Anna decides to leave for Ireland at the last minute to meet up with Jeremy, who is traveling to Dublin for a conference… She intends to propose to him on February 29, as permitted by an Irish tradition known as “Leap Year”, which exceptionally allows women to propose to their spouses on this special day.
But bad weather forced her to disembark in Dingle, several hundred kilometers from Dublin. There she meets Declan, a gruff, strong-tempered local Irishman, who promises to take her to Dublin by any means necessary… But Anna seems to dislike the young Irishman in every way, and the trip promises to be full of twists and turns…
What could be more pleasant than setting a love story in the heart of a wild country like Ireland? The setting is sublime and enchanting! Unfortunately, Anand Tucker fails to avoid the pitfalls, and presents a most disappointing film, which has an air of déjà vu about it… It has to be said that the film tried to recycle all the old concepts already encountered in other successful romantic comedies… And the result hurts!
It’s hard to find qualities in this flat, tasteless film, whose linear, unsurprising script plunges viewers into latent boredom… Worse still, the film uses and abuses the most disturbing stereotypes…
In this way, the film can be summed up as the escapade of an uptight, bourgeois American woman, discovering rural life in an uninviting Ireland. To put it plainly: “The American way to redneck country!”
And the stereotypes are pretty strong! Everything is there to depict a caricatured, backward Ireland: the Irish are gruff, unkind, live in godforsaken holes barely equipped with electricity, feed themselves with chickens from the garden, and are locked into rigid superstitions and traditional shackles. Add to this the herd of cows blocking Irish roads, and we’ve reached the height of deception!
Even the budding love story between the American Anna and the Irishman Declan is distressingly flat: with no surprises or twists, it’s clear from the first 5 minutes what the outcome of the film will be… In the end, beautiful Anna leaves her American fiancé behind to propose to Declan from the top of the magnificent Cliffs of Moher, the only trump card at the end… It’s a cliché that might have gone down better if the actors had been more up to the task, despite the enchanting natural setting, which somewhat enhances the film’s interest…
In short: an indigestible film that tried to play in the big league… in vain. A must-see out of curiosity, but we’d prefer to warn you: this failed comedy doesn’t really do Ireland justice!
4.59/5 (1,479 votes)
