No Nutritional Value: Leap Year

[trinityvixen]

This may be the first movie in this series to really, truly earn the "no nutritional value" nomenclature, seeing as saccharin is an artificial, zero-calorie sweetener and romantic "comedies" never seem to be sweetened with anything else.

Leap Year is a movie I remembered only after I started watching it. What I remembered was a review--either in the NYT or by Roger Ebert--that could not make sense of why the movie doesn't quite work but can't really be considered a failure either. It hits its marks, the leads have decent enough chemistry, and the premise is suitably flimsy that it is promptly forgot (until the requisite boy-loses-girl moment) when the two leads get thrown together.

Perhaps the problem is that in an effort to justify the bad qualities of the romantic pairing, the film offers realistic, heart-breakingly underplayed backstories for both characters. Amy Adams runs through her take-charge, make a perfect and empty life for herself stereotype with her usual piping vigor. Matthew Goode (who I hadn't seen playing a straight character ever, so it was nice to see him in another role where he could) is the slouch, uncouth driver with no sense of the border between frankness and rudeness. You're supposed to cheer for him teaching her to loosen up and appreciate the rough-and-tumble pleasures of life. You're supposed to cheer for her to bring him out of his self-imposed exile from a lot of humanity. True love! Conquers all! Closing Credits!

The only trouble is that both characters have not unreasonable pathologies considering their pasts, and the changes that need to happen for both of them are so gradual and small that they can't be properly contained in your typical Romantic Comedy Formula (TM). The film also seems to want to shy clear of melodrama, so it brings up these background goodies and then dismisses them for the RCF(TM) staples of the "oops, they think we're a couple and now we have to act like it" variety. Amy Adams has one of the best, most intelligent means of determining which of her two suitors is the better person that I have ever seen in a film, and it is ruined by the one boyfriend's over-the-top reaction when the simplicity of Matthew Goode's reaction would have sufficed to show up the other man.

That aspect of the movie--of the tropes of romantic comedies past bearing down on an otherwise small and sad story--keeps Leap Year from being great. We have to have the Hair-brained Scheme, the constant requirement that one or both of the prospective couple behave like a crazy person/asshole for no reason (but not to such a degree that we fear they won't make it 4-ev-ahs!), the original boyfriend who seems nice enough until we learn he's a total douche-drinking scuzz, etc. etc. It didn't need these aspects to be charming--part of Matthew Goode's characters woes are resolved in a very British-blue-collar movie way--and it's a pity that they didn't trust their own work enough to let it just be charming.

So, Leap Year. Worth a watch--Matthew Goode's Irish accent and exceedingly easy-on-the-eyes screen presence are worth the view alone--just remember that that's not sugar you're tasting.

Favorite line/scene: Amy Adams and Matthew Goode are caught in a hailstorm, and they're running into a church for shelter. He's stunned by the hail, bursts in shouting...
Declan: Jesus Christ!
[Entire congregation, including the minister and the two people getting married turn around at the outburst.]
Anna: ...is Lord!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This description makes me think of Leap Year as some sort of meta-romantic-comedy parody. I wonder if it'd be more fulfilling to look at it as a story about real, damaged people trapped inside of the "romantic comedy formula".

Then again, I haven't seen it and I have a tendency to constantly make subjunctive assumptions to spice life up, so it's probably as vanilla as it sounds. Ho hum.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

It might have been one of those movies where they weren't sure whether or not to take it to the existential limits. Clearly, someone thought they could, but that person got laid off while the script was still being written. I could see it being a drama, not a comedy.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I'd say even your lukewarm endorsement was too kind to this turkey. I saw it on its grand opening, on a date with a journalist from the Hollywood Reporter. We both hated it, especially as we'd both been to Ireland and knew that the movie's geography made no sense at all. (If you want to get from Wales to Dublin, you don't go through Dingle! That's like going from Boston to Miami through Houston.)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Being totally fair now: did you dislike it mostly because of geographic inanity or because of story/acting/film-making issues? I can't imagine having such a vehemently negative reaction to this film. It's not got enough going on about it to be so hated, I wouldn't think.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, the geography was a small thing. I just felt the movie was a string of cliches about paper-thin, one-dimensional characters. I know that's true about a lot of rom-coms but it doesn't excuse it for me.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I guess my tolerance for these things is higher because this is far from being even the best of the worst rom-coms I've ever seen. In other words, I've seen 27 Dresses, your argument is invalid. (Kidding, but not really!)

[hslayer.livejournal.com]

And it wasn't even released during a LEAP YEAR!!

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

In all seriousness, the fact that it was released in January suggests what the studio thought of it (not much).

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

OK, so I'm not going to see this movie. How does she tell which is the better guy?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Previously, our heroine had been asked by our hero what she would take with her if her apartment was on fire. He said he'd take his mother's ring, end of story. She didn't have an answer. Some time later, after she discovers that douche-nozzle boyfriend proposed only so they could get the nice apartment in the ritzy building (the building owners being crazy conservative and unwilling to rent to people living in sin, apparently), she sets off a fire alarm. Or it goes off. I wasn't paying enough attention at that moment. For the sake of agency (another problem in these movies), I say she set it off. Douche-nozzle fiance runs around the apartment trying to rescue his electronics--including their (easily replaceable) cables--all the while screaming at her to help him.

It's a clever way to instantly judge the worth of a person, though as I said, the effect is diminished somewhat by douche-nozzle fiance being, well, a douche-nozzle. Also, it's not exactly her idea to gauge a person's character via this method--it's the love-interest's--but it was effective. Especially since what's most revealing is that she realizes she doesn't want or need to save anything herself at that moment. Liked the idea of that a lot.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

...so what would you take?

I mean, I'd want the portable hard drive, definitely. And then my photo albums and my jewelry box. But I'm honestly not sure I could carry my photo albums. And the wedding albums are in another room in a box, so that's just not happening...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Ideally, I'm going to have a fire-proof safe one of these days to store anything truly precious. Most of my best photos would be easy to recover from other places (I'm not the world's best or most prolific photographer in the first place). I would want to save hard drives and computers if there were really time.

But, forced to choose in 60 seconds? My purse (ID, wallet), my passport, and my cats, not necessarily in that order.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Drifting completely off topic, but do you ever plan out what you would do if there was a disaster (your train crashed, your car drove off the bridge, your plane landed in the Hudson)? I find myself trying to figure out how I would manage to get my id and my health insurance card and a credit card safely onto the rescue whatever. Because, you know, bad enough you just survived a total catastrophe, but now how are you going to get home when your Metrocard is at the bottom of the river? *Self-directed eye-roll*

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Constantly worry about that. I try to keep my ID not in a central location--with the idea that should one be lost, I have enough of the other to recoup it.

Then again, this paltry amount of planning, juxtaposed with my substantial thoughts about how to prepare and defend myself during the zombie apocalypse should guilt me into doing more.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I hate to say this, but I suspect that in the event of a zombie apocalypse, I'm just going to get et.

I don't really run or climb fast enough, I know nothing about weapons and don't have any, I don't own a motor vehicle, and I don't have enough room to stockpile food. My apartment is not particularly defensible.

Plus, Chuckro assures me that my brains are, in fact, tasty.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I see the odds stacked against me. To which I respond, "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW FREAKED OUT ZOMBIES MAKE ME." Which means I'll either be first or last to get eaten, but I like to skew to the side of surviving because I'm just that paranoid about zombies that even admitting I could be eaten freaks me out too much to be calm.

I also think that I would be able to kill friends and family if necessary to ward off the zombie plague. This seems to be a problem most people have in zombie plagues--not killing off beloved infected. No problem for me!

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

You know, I had originally thought trying to get to your place in the event of a zombie apocalypse might be a decent plan. Your willingness to kill off friends and family makes me re-think that.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

See, I'd be prepared to house and feed the lot of my friends. But if you have even the possibility of having been bitten, well, it would be a full-body scan followed by a summary execution or, if unsure, incarceration in a neighboring apartment until such time as we could be sure you hadn't turned. I think that's fair. If you have the zombie, I'm doing you the favor by not letting you suffer, I say.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

The wedding album photos, if I recall correctly, should all be backed up on the external hard drive. Along with every photo you've taken in the last two years.

Wallet, keys, phone, external hard drive, other hard-to-replace stuff. Pretty much in that order. Order subject to change if there are living things unable to rescue themselves in my house.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Ok, if there are other living things that can't escape, I don't even need the wallet. We'll figure that one out later, I'm saving the people/animals.

Well, not the ants. The ants can fry.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's how I feel about the bugs in this place. We don't have ants. We have flying bugs of some stripe that I can't quite identify. I hope they burn.

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I thoroughly enjoyed the review, but I'm not sure if I'll see the film. I'm sure I'd probably find enjoyment in it 'cause I seem to find enjoyment in literally just about ANY film I actually watch, but it doesn't sound like one I'd go out of my way for.

I knew both stars' names, but I had to do a Google search to see what they looked like, and immediately recognized both. Haha I only saw a couple small photos, but Amy Adams reminded me of Nicole Kidman -- is it just me, or is she known for this?

Haha love the favorite scene. : )

By the way, have you seen My Best Friend's Girlfriend?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed the review. It's a service we provide here--watching middling to bad movies so the rest of you don't have to.

I think I impressed my roommate with how ignorant I am saying that I was unsure as to whether or not Matthew Goode could play not-gay, but I do know who he is at least, and that's probably more than most people. As for the Amy Adams-Nicole Kidman issue: Nicole Kidman is actually a space alien, so, no, I don't really see the resemblance. But that may just be me 'cause did I mention that I think Nicole Kidman is a space alien? 'Cause she is.

Have not seen My Best Friend's Girlfriend. Isn't that a Dane Cook movie?

[six-demon-bag.livejournal.com]

Argh. Dane Cook is in it, but don't call it a "Dane Cook movie"...it sounds so negative that way haha. I was scared to watch it because I had come to DESPISE Dane Cook, but it turned out to be pretty damned entertaining. Dane Cook offers a service where guys pay him to take their girlfriends who are mad at them, or ex-girlfriends who just dumped them out and give them an absolute nightmare date so they go running back to their boyfriends/ex-boyfriends. One girl, an uber Christian, he takes to a pizza joint called Cheesus Crust. I know it's a stretch, but the "Jesus Christ!" in that scene you mentioned made me think of it. Also, Alec Baldwin has a small, but hilarious part in the film. Recommended. : )