Amy Adams and Matthew Goode have the charm to float a romantic comedy like “Leap Year,” and this is a story that needs their buoyancy.
A sort of conspiracy forms between the audience and the screen: We know what has to happen, and the movie knows what has to happen, and the point is to keep us amused. “Leap Year” did better than that: It made me care. It did that by not being too obvious.
A sweet but overorganized young woman named Anna (Amy Adams) has been dating a high-powered heart surgeon named Jeremy (Adam Scott) for four years. He’s pleasant, attentive, presentable, and shares her goal of buying a condo in the best building in Boston.
When, oh when, will Jeremy ask Anna to marry her? After dashing her hopes yet once again, he hurries off to Dublin for a cardiologists’ convention. Anna is told that in Ireland on Leap Day, every four years, a woman can ask a man to marry her. Anna double- checks on the Web, somehow not discovering that this is believed nearly everywhere, and if a man in Denmark turned her down, he would have to buy her a pair of gloves.
Anna flies off to Ireland. The flight lasts only long enough for her to survive severe turbulence. The plane is diverted to Cardiff. Is there anyone in the theater surprised that she didn’t arrive in Dublin on schedule?
Despite canceled ferry boats, she makes her way to Ireland by hiring a tugboat. The skipper says they can’t land at Cork but must head for Dingle.
We know what’s coming. Anna must meet her co-star, Declan, played by Matthew Goode as the owner of the local pub. Anna is now wet and tired, but still plucky. In the pub, she asks Declan how she can get to Dublin. Turns out Declan is not only the publican but the taxi driver and runs the local hotel.
Anna and Declan argue all the way to Dublin through adventures that, by law, must include getting all muddy and being forced to share a bedroom together. Therefore, the success of the film depends on the acting and direction.
Adams and Goode sell it with great negative chemistry and appeal. Adams has an ability to make things seem fresh and new; everything seems to be happening to her for the first time, and she has a particularly innocent sincerity that’s convincing. Goode is wisely not made too handsome. Oh, you could shoot him as handsome; he’s good-looking, let’s face it. But the director, Anand Tucker, shoots him as annoyed, rude and scruffy.
The movie carefully avoids making Jeremy, the cardiologist, a heavy. It’s rather clever: He smoothly does exactly what his girlfriend has trained him to do, and what he doesn’t understand is that she no longer believes in that version of himself.
This is a full-bore, PG-rated, sweet romantic comedy. It sticks to the track, makes all the scheduled stops, and bears us triumphantly to the station. And it is populated by colorful characters, but then, when was the last time you saw a boring Irishman in a movie?
“LEAP YEAR.”
PG for sensuality and language. 1 hour, 37 minutes. Directed by Anand Tucker; written by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont; starring Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, John Lithgow, Adam Scott, Noel O’Donovan and Tony Rohr. Opens today at area theaters.
