Regarding Leap Year

Anna Brady (Amy Adams) likes to control every aspect of her life. There's no such thing as luck in her mind - if you make the right plans, everything turns out right. If you don't, then things can get ugly. Unfortunately, the only part of her life that she can't control is her marital status. Her longtime boyfriend seems to have no interest in marriage, and Anna knows only too well that the man must always propose. Or must he? It just so happens that there's an old Irish tradition that a woman can propose to her man on February 29th. And seeing as how it's leap year and her boyfriend is at a convention in Dublin... well, Anna decides to take control and hops on a plane. But when her flight is diverted and she ends up being driven across Ireland by a handsome Irish rogue named Declan (Matthew Goode), she discovers that she just might lose control of her heart.

As you can probably guess from the blurb above, this is a typical romantic comedy. Boy meets girl, at least one of them is entangled in a relationship with an annoying/creepy/stupid/selfish person, they fight all the time, are forced into some hilarious and/or uncomfortable situations, eventually discover they're in love, almost miss their chance at happiness, but eventually get it through their thick skulls that they belong together and should act accordingly. I won't say I'm an expert on romantic comedies (I've only seen a few), but from the summaries I've read, I'm pretty sure that's how most of them go. Leap Year follows the same pattern, but with a few refreshing differences from a typical Hollywood movie.

First, Anna is fixated on the idea of plans, control, and marriage. She looks at Jeremy (Adam Scott), her boyfriend, and sees a man who just doesn't have the nerve - or something - to ask her to marry him. But marriage, or perhaps the security that comes with marriage, is what she really wants. So she decides she's going to take matters into her own hands and propose to him. This is a move that would be applauded by feminists everywhere. After all, when the man becomes too weak, the woman should step in and be the man, right? Just look at Enchanted or any one of the seemingly endless movies where it is implied that women are the ones who really save the day. Fortunately, Leap Year rejects the ideas that men and women are interchangeable and that women should be tougher and more manly than men. In the end, Declan respectfully lets Anna make her choice, but he takes the lead in the relationship when she comes back to him.

Second, and perhaps just as importantly, the message of the movie is that marriage is an essential ingredient in a relationship. It's implied that Jeremy takes too long to commit to marriage, and when he does, he commits for the wrong reason. Jeremy is all about plans (plans for things that he wants for himself), and when marriage fits into the plan, he decides to take the leap. That relationship and that kind of "love" are exposed as severely wanting. Declan, on the other hand, considers marriage as a plan in itself and decides to take that step with Anna without an ulterior motive. He doesn't need to be pushed into marriage, and even wants to get married despite Anna's offer of a relationship without marriage.

Finally, Declan respects Anna even when he could easily take advantage of her. In a typical, but funny situation, the two have to pose as a married couple in order to stay the night in the house of an old couple. Declan begs his way into sharing a bed with Anna (for reasons of comfort), but the two keep their physical distance as much as possible in the small bed. This, despite the feelings awoken when the two shared their first kiss earlier that day, and despite a long look that passes between them as they lie in bed. Declan is the one to emphatically turn his back, showing his respect for her and for the "Jeremy" she seems so eager to marry. Unfortunately, it is implied that the two don't retain their physical distance after they become engaged, but Leap Year does take a pretty large step in the right direction nonetheless.

I'm a fan of clean romances and romantic comedies, though both are few and far between. Leap Year manages to be funny and fairly clean, with a handsome hero complete with an Irish brogue, a pretty heroine who needs to learn a few lessons, and a good old Irish flavor. In the end, though, it's the refreshingly (almost) correct look at commitment and the selfish, soulless way people view love these days that make this movie worth it.

My Rating: T (mild sexual content and references, mild language)