DVD Reviews

Leap Year - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll May 4, 2010, 17:46 GMT

When Anna’s (Amy Adams) four-year anniversary to her boyfriend passes without an engagement ring, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Inspired by an Irish tradition that allows women to propose to men on Leap Day, Anna follows Jeremy (Adam Scott) to Dublin to propose to him. But after landing on the wrong side of Ireland, she must enlist the help of the handsome and carefree local Declan ...more

A cookie cutter romance provides some charm in the form of Amy Adams and the lovely Irish countryside - though even that charm is tarnished by a too familiar screenplay and set pieces.  Begorra, the luck o’ the Irish seemed to peter out for the production.  

Anna Brady (Amy Adams) leads an orderly life.  She thinks that her longtime boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) is going to propose.  She gets ready for the dinner that she thinks will end in a wedding ring. 

The jewelry box arrives, is opened, and surprise contains… a pair of earrings.  Jeremy doesn’t pick up on Anna’s disappointment and instead flies away to Ireland for a cardiology conference. 

Earlier in the day Anna had visited her father (John Lithgow in a short cameo) who she told that Jeremy was going to pop the question.  He tells the family story of a relative who was tired of waiting for her boy-o to pop it and proposed on Leap Day, an Irish tradition that allows the lady to be the one to propose as long as it falls on February 29th. 

Anna decides that’s what she’s going to do and boards a plane bound for Dublin.  However, a storm ends up waylaying her.  She ends up on a boat to Cork, but again the gales force the tiny vessel to land at the tiny village of Dingle.  She and her Louis Vuitton baggage end up at the inn. 

She decides to stay for the night, but no thanks to the surly innkeeper Declan (Matthew Goode) who is also the taxi service.  A debt owed on kitchen equipment forces Declan to taxi Anna to Dublin but the two might find love amongst the ruins on the way.  

Cute and charming main character?  Check.  Surly secondary character, but with a heart of gold?  Check.  Throw in some local “cute” color and scenery?  Check.  It seems that all the hallmarks of this type of romantic comedy are present, however, why doesn’t it fall together? 

It’s not that Leap Year is a bad film per se, but it’s more that you’ve seen it all before and perhaps too many times.  Adams is goofily charming and cute, but her accident prone behavior seems to be present just to provide some comedic pieces.  The same is true of Goode’s surliness and appearing to dislike her.  Even the cute, local color (the Irishmen in the bar and the innkeepers) seem forced and just there to attempt to provide us some giggles. 

I will say that the lovely Irish countryside, that isn’t CGI, does look fantastic in high definition.  I thought that Goode was the weakest part of Watchmen, but here he didn’t do me much offense.  It all just seemed too familiar. 

We just know that the duo, no matter how they appear to dislike one another, will be in love by the time they get to Dublin (sound like a song?).  It’s up to the performers to make us forget those tired scripting tropes. 

Adams and Goode give it the old college try, but it just doesn’t gel together in the end.  Mildly entertaining and it didn’t harm me, but it would’ve been nice if the leap didn’t fall short.  

Leap Year is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (2.40:1).    Special features are 7 minutes of deleted scenes in high definition.  The disc is also BD-Live enhanced and offer a host of standard Universal features (bookmarking, Pocket Blu, etc.).  

Leap Year tries but ends up being somewhat forgettable.  That’s somewhat of a shame as the Irish locales are lovely.  Those looking for some romantic fluff might find entertainment, but those looking for something more will go away disappointed.

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