Leap Year is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Anand Tucker and starring Amy Adams and Matthew Goode. The film is about a woman who heads to Ireland to ask her boyfriend to accept her wedding proposal on leap day, when Irish tradition holds that men cannot refuse a woman's proposal for marriage. Her plans are interrupted by a series of increasingly unlikely events and are further complicated when she hires a handsome innkeeper to take her to her boyfriend in Dublin. The film premiered in New York City on January 6, 2010.^[3]

Plot[link]

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Anna Brady plans to travel to Dublin, Ireland, to propose to her boyfriend Jeremy on February 29, leap day, because, according to Irish tradition, a man who receives a marriage proposal on a leap day must accept it.^[4] While mid-flight to Dublin, there is a storm and the plane diverts to Cardiff, Wales. Anna hires a boat to take her to Cork, but the severity of the storm forces her to be put ashore on the Dingle Peninsula. She enlists the help of a surly Irish innkeeper, Declan O'Callaghan, to taxi her across the country to Dublin to pull off the proposal in time, and begins to question her intentions with Jeremy when she makes a connection with Declan.

At first, Declan refuses to drive Anna to Dublin, but after his pub is threatened with foreclosure the next morning, he agrees to drive her for €500. Before they leave, Declan gets frustrated at Anna's luggage and she snaps at him telling him to be careful due to the fact that her boyfriend gave it to her and it is Louis Vuitton. The two set out in Declan's rickety car, but they quickly run into a herd of cows. Anna shoos them away but steps in cow dung, causing her to lean against the car, which wheels back into a lake. Angry at Declan, Anna walks away from him; she stops a car for a lift and after offering to take her bag they drive away with her luggage to the delight of Declan.

The two eventually reach a pub where they discover the men going through Anna's luggage. Declan punches them, and they are both kicked out by the landlord. They eventually reach a railway station by foot. While passing time waiting for the train at a nearby castle, Declan asks Anna what she would save if her apartment caught fire, and she is unable to answer. The train arrives early, and Anna misses it. The two go to a bed and breakfast, where they are forced to pretend that they are married so that their conservative hosts will allow them to stay. Asked their married name, they simultaneously answer 'Brady' and 'O'Callaghan', quickly amending that to 'O'Brady-Callaghan'. During dinner, Anna and Declan are forced to kiss, which causes some confusion for them. That night, they hesitantly sleep in the same bed. The next day, they take shelter from a hail storm in a church where a wedding is taking place.

The next day they arrive by bus in Dublin. On the way to the hotel, they stop by a park and Declan reveals that he was once engaged but that his ex-fiancée ran off with his best friend and his family ring to Dublin; Anna encourages him to get his ring back. When Anna reaches Jeremy's hotel, he proposes to her, and she accepts after a hesitation as Declan walks away. At their engagement party, Anna finds out that Jeremy proposed to her only in an effort to impress the manager of the expensive condominium the two were attempting to buy.

Dismayed, Anna pulls the fire alarm and watches as Jeremy grabs all the electronics before fleeing. Anna goes back to the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, where Declan is successfully running his inn. She proposes that they get together and 'not make plans', and Declan leaves the room. Anna interprets this as a rejection, so she rushes outside and ends up on a cliff overlooking the sea. Declan follows her and asks, 'Mrs. O'Brady-Callaghan, where the hell are you going?' and proposes to her with the ring he retrieved from his ex-fiancée while in Dublin. Some time later, the two are shown driving in Declan's car with a 'Just married' sign in the back window.

Cast[link]

• Amy Adams as Anna Brady
• Matthew Goode as Declan O'Callaghan
• Adam Scott as Jeremy Sloane
• John Lithgow as Jack Brady
• Kaitlin Olson as Libby
• Noel O'Donovan as Seamus
• Tony Rohr as Frank
• Pat Laffan as Donal
• Alan Devlin as Joe
• Ian McElhinney as Priest
• Peter O'Meara as Ron

Production[link]

On October 17, 2008, it was announced that Amy Adams was to star in the film.^[5] On November 23, Anand Tucker signed on to direct the film, with Simon Beaufoy, Harry Elfont, and Deborah Kaplan collaborating on the screenplay.^[6] On February 12, 2009, it was announced that Matthew Goode would be playing the role of the cynical innkeeper, Declan.^[7] On March 18, it was announced that Adam Scott was to play Adams' love interest in the film,^[8] and that Kaitlin Olson would play Anna's best friend, Libby.^[9]

The film was shot in County Wicklow, Dublin, County Mayo and County Galway, with filming taking place in and around the Aran Islands, Connemara, Temple Bar, Georgian Dublin, Wicklow National Park and Olaf Street, Waterford.^[10] On October 19, it was announced that Randy Edelman had been chosen to compose the film's film score. The decision to choose Edelman came as a surprise, as Tucker had used Barrington Pheloung for two of his previous films, Hilary & Jackie and When Did You Last See Your Father?^[11]

Reception[link]

Critical[link]

Upon its release, the film received mostly negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 20% of critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.1 out of 10.^[12] Among Rotten Tomatoes' 'Top Critics', which consists of the most popular and notable critics from newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 24%, based on a sample of 21 reviews. The site's general consensus is that 'Amy Adams is as appealing as ever, but her charms aren't enough to keep Leap Year from succumbing to an overabundance of clichés and an unfunny script'.^[13] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean score out of 0–100 reviews from critics, has given the film a rating score of 33 based on 29 reviews.^[14] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described Leap Year as a 'full-bore, PG-rated, sweet rom-com'. 'It sticks to the track, makes all the scheduled stops, and bears us triumphantly to the station'.^[15] Also, Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B- stating that the film could have used more 'pizazz'.^[16] When examining the more negative reviews, A. O. Scott of The New York Times saw it as 'so witless, charmless, and unimaginative, that it can be described as a movie only in a strictly technical sense'.^[17] Richard Roeper gave it a C-, stating that it had a 'Recycled plot, lame sight gags, Leprechaun-like stock Irish characters,' adding that 'The charms of Amy Adams rescue Leap Year from Truly Awful status'.^[18] Donald Clarke of The Irish Times gave the film one star out of five, and in a scathing review, described it as 'offensive, reactionary, patronising filth' and cited the film as evidence that 'Hollywood is incapable of seeing the Irish as anything but IRA men or twinkly rural imbeciles'.^[19] One of the film's stars, Matthew Goode, admitted 'I just know that there are a lot of people who will say it is the worst film of 2010' and revealed that the main reason he signed on to the project was so that he could remain close to home and be able to visit his girlfriend and newborn daughter.^[20]

Box office[link]

The film opened at the American box office at number 6, with a modest $9,202,815, behind blockbusters Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, as well as Daybreakers and It's Complicated.^[21] The film's final gross of $25,918,920 in the United States meant that it was a minor success, as it was produced on a budget of $19,000,000. In addition to this, the film made $6,688,396 in foreign markets, for a final worldwide gross of $32,607,316.

Soundtrack[link]

An audio CD soundtrack for Leap Year was released on the Varèse Sarabande record label on January 12, 2010. However that soundtrack contains only the original score, composed and conducted by Randy Edelman. The musical selections that were used, and credited at the end of the film are not, as yet, available on CD. Those include:

• Nat "King" Cole – "More and More of Your Amor" (Bitter:Sweet's production released 2009)
• Kelly Clarkson – "I Want You" (not included in IMDB's list of songs for the film^[22])
• The Colonials featuring Candice Gordon – "I'll Tell My Ma"
• The Colonials featuring Candice Gordon – "The Irish Rover"
• Eulogies – "Day to Day"
• The Brombies – "Waltz with Anna"
• Dessie O'Halloran/Sharon Shannon – "Patsy Fagan"
• Flogging Molly – "Within a Mile of Home"
• The Brombies – "Buffalo Gals"
• The Brombies – "A Pint for Breakfast"
• The Brombies – "Leaping Lizards"
• Lemon Jelly – "The Staunton Lick"
• The Mamas & the Papas – "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
• Gwyneth Herbert – "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"
• Noisettes – "Never Forget You"
• Colbie Caillat – "You Got Me"

• Snow Patrol's song "Just Say Yes" was also used in the trailer.

Home media[link]

Leap Year was released on DVD in the United States on May 4, 2010.^[23] It debuted at number 4 on the American DVD rentals chart, with a first week rental index of 56.63.^[24] It placed 5th on the DVD sales chart, selling an estimated 159,843 units, and has sold about 750,000 units in total to date ^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Leap Year at the Internet Movie Database
• Leap Year at Rotten Tomatoes
• Leap Year (2010 film) at Box Office Mojo