Leap Year

If Leap Year was set in France all the locals would be smoking Gitanes and wearing onions around their neck, whilst trying not to dislodge their berets as they play a game of Boules. However Leap Year is set in Ireland . The Hollywood version of Ireland . Oh dear me. If you can imagine Alan Partridges visions of The Emerald Isle and its characters you’ll be pretty close to what you have here. One person even says “Top of the morning!”. Oh dear me, indeed. In fact, the only reason I can think of for actually recommending this film to someone is to watch it just so you can shake your head in disbelief at some of the stereotypes on show. As for the lame storyline, we have Amy Adams attempting to fly to Dublin so she can propose to her high flying boyfriend on February 29th. She doesn’t quite make it though and ends up instead in a small Irish village where she meets Matthew Goode where “hilarity ensues”. Far too many problems to list about this mess of a movie, but one major problem is that Adams’ absent boyfriend doesn’t seem a bad bloke (until a forced third act turn) and therefore Adams basically spends portions of the film either cheating or thinking about cheating on him. Oh the romance! Adams is miles better than this rubbish and I can’t even begin to think what she saw in the script (Money? Oh you cynic, you). At least Goode recognised he was in a pile of pants (see below). What’s surprising is that director Anand Tucker recently directed one third of Red Riding, one of the grittiest and brutal TV dramas of recent years. If any Irish luck rubs off on him after this it’ll be that this blot on his CV is quickly forgotten by everyone.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Throws in just enough sweetness that the target audience may enjoy, thus avoiding a zero rating. To quote Goode himself though, this is “turgid”. To be sure, to be sure! Rating: 2/10.