Leap Year, Perfect for that Mother-Daughter Matinee

A A A Comments (2) By Brian Miller Tuesday, Jan 5 2010

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Leap Year
Directed by Anand Tucker
Universal
Opens January 8

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According to supposed Irish custom, women may propose to their reluctant fiancés on February 29. The woman in Leap Year is Anna (Amy Adams), a Boston apartment stager, and her intended fiancé, Jeremy (Adam Scott), is a surgeon more in love with his BlackBerry than her. But after four years, he still hasn't pulled the Tiffany trigger. What's a girl to do? Jeremy has flown to a medical conference in Dublin, which neatly coincides with leap day, so Anna follows—intending to ambush him on the fated date. Needless to say, things don't go as planned. Leap Year belongs to the Prada backlash subgenre of women's pictures—epitomized by The Proposal—in which smart, stylish women must be muddied, abased, ridiculed, and degraded in order to get their man. Only the new man is waggish innkeeper Declan (Matthew Goode), who agrees to drive stranded Anna to Dublin. She's uptight and hyper-organized; he's a grinning oaf who chews with his mouth open. See where this is going? Adams and Goode are both appealing, but you can write Leap Year's opposites-attract itinerary yourself. Written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan (Made of Honor), and directed by Anand Tucker (Shopgirl), the movie seems a rehash of 1930s conventions—It Happened One Night in Ireland. (Oh, no! There's only one bed left at the B&B!) Free from sex or naughty language, Leap Year appears to have been designed for that huge mother-daughter matinee market, ahem. Trust me: Take mom to It's Complicated instead.