LEAP YEAR — ★★ — Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott; rated PG (violence, vulgarity, slurs, profanity, brief drugs, brief partial nudity); in general release
Even Amy Adams can't do anything with "Leap Year," except for perhaps ensuring that it's not a completely painful cinematic experience.
Let's think about that for a minute. Adams, who was so winning and so effervescent in both the Oscar-nominated movies "Junebug" (2005) and "Enchanted" (2007), can't do anything with the material she's being given.
If anything, that speaks to the staleness and stupidity of this romantic comedy rather than reflecting negatively on the actress. "Leap Year" is dim-witted and overly familiar. It's the kind of thing that belongs on cable television and not on the big screen.
Worse, it's a colossal waste of Adams' talents. She stars as Anna, a professional "stager" for Realtors who's hoping to finally snare her longtime boyfriend, cardiologist Jeremy (Adam Scott).
Instead of proposing to her, as she thinks he's going to do, Jeremy heads off to a medical conference in Ireland. So, hopeless romantic Anna — citing family history and supposed Irish lore — hopes to go there and propose to him on Feb. 29.
(Apparently, this is some sort of weird, sexist reality where a woman proposing is legal only one day every four years.)
As expected, Anna gets lost along the way. She's aided by Declan (Matthew Goode), a pub owner and part-time taxi driver who's agreed to get her to Dublin in time for her very dramatic boyfriend "ambush."
It's obvious from the opening minutes where this story is going.
The filmmakers really stack the deck against Scott's selfish Yuppie character, though Adams' Ugly American and Goode's rude European are only marginally better.
(And judging by his ever-changing accent, Englishman Goode can't decide which of the British islands his character is supposed to come from.)
Also, veteran screenwriters Harry Kaplan and Deborah Elfont seem content to fill out the supporting characters with insulting Irish and other European stereotypes (most of whom are seen as being superstitious and a bit slow).
"Leap Year" is rated PG and features supposedly comic violence (including automotive mayhem, a bar brawl with fisticuffs and some pratfalls), vulgar references and sight gags (both flatulence and some animal scatology), derogatory language and slurs (some based on nationality), scattered strong profanity, brief drug references, and brief partial female nudity (veiled nudity, seen through a shower curtain). Running time: 101 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com