It’s okay to borrow a title from Lady Gaga once in a while, right? Because in this case, ‘Leap Year,’ the new Amy Adams/Matthew Goode “romantic” “comedy” (notice how both those words are in quotation marks) can only be rightly called a bad romance. Bad in the sense that it has about as much life, as say, a rock, and this despite the fact that, in general, I love Amy Adams and Matthew Goode is a romantic lead with so much potential.
The basic plot: Anna (Amy Adams) wants her boyfriend of four years to propose to her. He doesn’t. He goes to a conference in Dublin that happens to fall on February 29th, and myth has it that a woman can propose in Ireland to a man on February 29th, blah, blah, blah. Mind you, in the end, this really ends up having little to do with anything. Anna gets to Ireland but not Dublin, she needs a ride to Dublin, and Declan (Matthew Goode), all spiteful and hateful at first, will get her there. Fights and manure and mud and vomit ensue. And zero in the way of romantic inspiration or a story of mythic proportions, which somehow, with the whole Leap Year idea, this movie wanted to be at least a little.
I know, totally romantic right? I mean, when doesn’t a romance include manure and vomit these days?

I was ready to be forgiving when I went to this movie: I wanted a light, fun romance, and I really didn’t care if it was formulaic or not. But when–I keep trying to remember the very first time–did manure and mud slides and embarrassingly horrific mishaps begin to pass as humor that somehow was supposed to spark romantic feelings between two people? What was the first movie that did this? Who thought this was a good idea? All I can think of is ‘There’s Something About Mary’ as the first movie I remember to really take this sort of comedy that far–but then it wasn’t billed as a romance. It was billed as a comedy. And did you ever notice how classics like ‘When Harry Met Sally’ and ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ never succumbed to bathroom humor? Um, because it ruins the mood, both comedic and romantic?
Anyway, the bottom line is: ‘Leap Year’ is pathetic. Horrible. Awful. Disgusting. Unwatchable. Insulting. Yes, I liked it that much!