“LEAP YEAR” (Amy Adams, Mathhew Goode & that weird looking stiff actor who played Will Farrell’s successful brother in ‘Step Brothers’)
For the past couple of years it seemed as though Amy Adams could do no wrong... Then 2009 opened with an obvious Academy Award nomination for her role in ‘Sunshine Cleaning’. It then seemed as though she felt that was all she needed to do to keep her ‘star’ shining as the next 2 projects brought her winning streak to a crashing hault – although her role as Amelia Earhardt in ‘Night At The Museum 2’ was the ONLY reason to view that catastrophe, her performance as Julie in ‘Julie & Julia’ was the worst she’s given. So she decides to open 2010 with a dumb romantic comedy; after the wonderful ‘Sunshine Cleaning’, this is an inauspicious beginning to the new year indeed – Let’s hope her choices go in the opposite direction this year (Starts off with a clunker & gets better as the months go by)
Although one of the first things I wrote in my notebook was ‘Did Amy read this script before she agreed to the role?’, she was still able to produce that delightful charm that had won me over in the past & by the end of ‘Leap Year’ I was thinking that it wasn’t ‘ALL that bad’. She’s like the female version of Paul Rudd – just something about them is likeable & they do win you over even when the material has an unpleasant odor to it...
Here’s the premise that was suppose to incite moviegoers to select this film; On Leap Year day in Ireland, it is acceptable for a woman to propose to a man... In America a woman CAN propose to a man 365 days a year (366 during a leap year) So what’s the big deal?
Amy plays Anne from Boston, her long time boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) is also from Boston... neither of them has even a trace of a Boston accent. I guess since most of the film takes place in Ireland, they figured it would be too complicated for audiences dumb enough to buy tickets to this film to be able to decipher two accents in one movie.
Anne gets tipped off by a friend that Jeremy was seen coming out of a jewelry store & so she practices looking surprised for when Jeremy finally pops the question. Instead Jeremy purchased a pair of earrings for Anne prior to leaving on a business trip to Ireland.
John Lithgow plays Anne’s Irish father who reminds her of the oft-told story of how her Great Grandmother proposed to her Great Grandfather on Leap Year day in Ireland.
So instead of dumping the deadbeat, Anne decides to follow in her Great Grandmother’s footsteps & flies to Ireland to surprise Jeremy with a proposal of marriage on Leap Year day.
As with all insufferable chick flicks, Anne’s plans go awry – an ‘unexpected storm’ forces the plane to land off course & Anne must find different means of getting to Dublin on time (Even though she has 3 days to get there – apparently storms in Ireland tend to last for weeks)
After a series of dumb mishaps, Anne enlists the aide of bar owner Declan (Matthew Goode) to drive her to Dublin. Declan calls Anne’s suitcase ‘Louie’ because of the ‘designer’ name that is embedded upon it & he cares so little for Anne, he calls her 'Bob'.
More dumb mishaps ensue, including the crashing of Declan’s car & the pair having to pose as a married couple in order to stay at a B & B. Raise your hand if you haven't seen either of those lame premises a dozen times before.
Anne & Declan travel thru all kinds of inclement weather & yet Anne’s hair always bounces back sweeping & full bodied without the aid of shampoo or a hair dryer (Or electricity for that matter)
Then something unusual happened – a scene made me laugh out loud – I can even reveal what was said because out of context it isn’t going to appear to be funny at all; Jeremy cries out, “Jesus Christ!” & Anne softly adds, “Our Lord.”
My mood lightened after that & damn that Amy Adams, she had me ignoring the lame, time worn, can see the ending coming from a mile away plot & put a smile on my face... How does she do that?
A hard film to enjoy, but credit has to be given to Amy Adams & Matthew Goode for somehow creating enough chemistry to make this dreadful material show a little spark to make it passable by the time it ends. & I can’t say that the material improved at all as the film played out, but for some reason it stopped bothering me.
6 comments:
I did a synopsis on the movie site because this is a film my sister and mom would like, but I wouldn't go see it. :) I am taking a break on rom-com's for awhile. I may have to see Valentines Day because well, many people will go see that on Valentines Day and I know my girlfriend is all over it. Date movie bigtime.
Anyway...I thought you'd see The Lovely Bones or Extraordianry Measure before this.
Scratch that. I'm foggy now, it's way past my bed time. You did see Lovely Bones. I meant another movie. Maybe it was Avatar.
Yes, you haven't seen that one yet. I thought just for your own opinion of a movie that could quite possibly be the box office leader of all time, and also will dominate the tech Oscar categories, and possibly be between The Hurt Locker and itself for best picture, that you would see it for yourself. Hey...I'm not a big sci-fi buff, but I know I liked what I saw on screen. Also, it'd give you a chance to rip on it if you didn't like it and tell the people, the millions that have seen it, why it's not a good movie.
But then when I saw it I was in a very depressed mood about another cop being killed for no reason, that Avatar was a nice mental escape for awhile.
Isn't pretty ironic that it's the same director that is going to have the top two money earner's of all time back to back ?
We saw Leap Year on MLK day, but I still would have picked it before Extraordinary Measures because of the Amy Adams factor over the Harrison Ford factor.
If I were a paid critic, obviously I would have to go see junk like Avatar but since I'm neither paid to write this, nor am I a member of a flock, I have no desire to spend more than $3 to watch Cameron's latest ego trip, which I've been told is nothing more than a rip-off of an animated film from the 90's called 'Ferngully'. Add on the cheesy big Smurf aliens & the hokey love story & what you have is a kiddie movie that adult sheep will take their little lambs to see because it's the 'thing' to do. 'American Idol' is the #1 rated show on television too - Just because a lot of people seem to like crap doesn't mean I have to watch it.
Brian Lambert (at KJR) pushed me to go see 'Borat' when it came out & I told him if he paid me to review it, I'd go, but I smelled that fart a mile away & when I did finally catch it on HBO, I was so thankful I could change the channel after 15 minutes of that celluloid excrement.
It's not that bad. It's actually pretty entertaining a lot of the time. It's one of the best films in terms of visuals of all time. I don't get into comparison's or so called rip-offs. I have seen over a 100 movies a year for many years now. What was shown on screen takes a great level of vision in imagination and also filmmaking in a technical sense.
You don't have to be a sheep to like something that just so happens to be well liked by most. It's pretty rare that a film is number one for 6 weeks and will be probably be till Shutter Island is out ( and that's no guarantee either ) I mean you saw Iron Man, The Dark Knight and The Hangover and those were universally liked and made a lot of money. Were you selling out then ? Part of the " sheep " ?
When it comes to the East Valley reserve your right to see it with an open mind. I never once, let politics or hidden messages ruin my time in the theater of my viewpoint just seeing beings protecting their planet from ruin. Plain and simple.
Well, you don't have to wait till the summer for Avatar to break Titanic's record. It passed Titnaic this week. In just 6 weeks. I personally LOVED Avatar. It's the kind of action movie a chic can appreciate it. What can I say I thought it was beautiful.
It'll probably be the box office leader until Shutter Island is released and that won't be until the 19th of next month.
As for this film, I'm a female and I like these kinds of stories. I liked Amy and Matthew too. I thought Amy was better in this than in Julie and Julia.
If I need to explain why I went to see 'Iron Man', 'Dark Knight' & 'The Hangover', that's easy - Robert Downey, Jr., Heath Ledger & the trailer... Avatar's trailer appeared cheesy - from the special effects to the bad acting & I'm not a fan of ANY of James Cameron's previous films.
& to call me a sheep for The Hangover is simply ridiculous - I'm one of those who saw it in its first week & immediately deemed it a comedy classic (A 79 on my laugh-o-meter!)
But WE are different from the 'average movie-goer' WE go every week & see as many films as we can afford to catch. The beings that are 'flocking' to see Avatar are doing so because everyone else in the herd is going - & it is, above all else, 'family' friendly.
When my wife & I have a toss up between which film we should see, the R Rated one wins out every time because we know there won't be any kids in the audience.
I didn't see 'Toy Trucks 2' either but the sheep flocked to that turd, didn't they?
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