Anand Tucker
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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.
As engaged as she was in Junebug, Enchanted, and Sunshine Cleaning, that's how disconnected she is here.
Oscar-nominated for her supporting roles in “Junebug” and “Doubt,” she has also appeared in well-regarded films including “Catch Me If You Can,” “Enchanted” and last year’s “Julie & Julia.”
As we've known since she earned an Oscar nod for "Junebug," there's nothing ordinary about her.
Adams, an exceedingly promising American actress as evidenced by turns in Catch Me If You Can , Junebug , and Doubt , demeans herself now in picaresque cash grab Leap Year when her Anna, wanting to be betrothed to douchebag cardiologist Jeremy (Adam Scott), is pushed into the brawny arms of bog-trotting Declan (Goode) in a happy-go-smacky Forces of Nature imbroglio.
But given that the movie so blatantly hews to the original It Happened One Night formula-- complete with drippy husband-to-be (Adam Scott, so much more fun when he's smarmy) waiting at the end-- it has to be said: these two are no Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable.
This one takes the idea of the glossy "French Kiss," the classics "I Know Where I'm Going" and "It Happened One Night" and about two dozen other squabbling-couple-dealing-with-a-disaster-prone-journey movies and, as Woody Allen once said of his mother's cooking, "puts it through the de-flavorizing machine."
In this heavily diluted version of those classics It Happened One Night and I Know Where I'm Going, on the way to wed Dream Man, Anna gets sidetracked by Sarcastic Guy.
Though a loose update of 1945's "I Know Where I'm Going," the soulless script patches together influences ranging from 1934's "It Happened One Night" to 1997's "The Matchmaker," which was also about an ambitious American who falls for a surly Irishman.
Instead of a tonal and story amalgam of Local Hero and It Happened One Night, we get a pile-up of tired moments that are the product of whomever did the Google search that revealed the leap day custom.
This film is unquestionably the most unromantic and downright despairing rom-com since Made of Honor or, possibly, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Anna (Adams) is coiffed and costumed to resemble an uptown cross between The Quiet Man-era Maureen O'Hara and vintage Nicole Kidman, but the character is ill-flavored with a sort of ugly-American perkiness that sets your nerves on edge and makes you wonder in all seriousness if Tucker isn't employing some sort of wickedly dry, highly unsubtle cultural critique on both the U.S. and Ireland.
I'd say no one seems capable of making a great movie about an American falling in love in Ireland, if it weren't for John Ford 's 1952 classic " The Quiet Man ."
The plot of Leap Year, which traffics in broad stereotypes and imagines a romanticized rural Ireland straight out of The Quiet Man without even basic utilities, is a relic taken from the vault and dusted off after a 50 year or longer hibernation, when a woman proposing to a man would have seemed, if not scandalous, at least forward.
Everyone from John Wayne (The Quiet Man) to Janeane Garofalo (The MatchMaker) has been won over by a Loveblarney's charms, not to mention its commercial prospects.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Directed by Sofia Coppola
influenced Shopgirl (2005)
Plot Themes Characters
Lost in Translation minus the cultural condescension, the chasteness, and the behavioral appeal, with another menopausal comedian enchanting a dewy starlet -- Martin as sour ruminator, but who remembers his wacky tour-de-force in Looney Tunes: Back in Action?
Shopgirl, directed by Anand Tucker ( Hilary and Jackie ) from a screenplay by Steve Martin (adapting his novella), ventures into Lost in Translation territory.
Martin spends the entire film trying to channel Bill Murray ’s performance from Lost in Translation .
You'll probably hear a lot of reviewers wearily comparing Shopgirl to Lost in Translation (2003), with all kinds of added caveats, such as: isn't it about time we put this tired old formula to rest?
Anand Tucker's cinematic adaptation of Martin's book is not only penned by the author but features him in the role of Ray Porter, the charismatic fatcat who forms one third of Shopgirl's triangular romance, though his involvement does little to stem the tide of second-rate Lost in Translation preciousness emanating from this misbegotten portrait of modern alienation.
Steve Martin is nicely subdued in the role, an effect that's getting his performance compared to Bill Murray's performance in "Lost in Translation."
This one bears a strong resemblance to " The Matchmaker ," a 1997 film starring Janeane Garofalo, and also to the recent, much lesser sapfest " P.S.
Though a loose update of 1945's "I Know Where I'm Going," the soulless script patches together influences ranging from 1934's "It Happened One Night" to 1997's "The Matchmaker," which was also about an ambitious American who falls for a surly Irishman.
They get a good smile out of this, but wouldn't you be asking yourself why neither one mentions " Local Hero "?
Instead of a tonal and story amalgam of Local Hero and It Happened One Night, we get a pile-up of tired moments that are the product of whomever did the Google search that revealed the leap day custom.
Adams, an exceedingly promising American actress as evidenced by turns in Catch Me If You Can , Junebug , and Doubt , demeans herself now in picaresque cash grab Leap Year when her Anna, wanting to be betrothed to douchebag cardiologist Jeremy (Adam Scott), is pushed into the brawny arms of bog-trotting Declan (Goode) in a happy-go-smacky Forces of Nature imbroglio.
Then again, he's had practice; his part is nearly identical to the one he portrayed in 2004's " Chasing Liberty ."
Matthew Goode has slowly been building a solid and varied filmography and remains very appealing in not very good movies, "Leap Year" being his only misstep since his American feature debut in 2004's " Chasing Liberty" (a film I only remember for having taken note of the actor).
The all-around carelessness of the project extends to the by-the-numbers script credited to Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (the team behind the immortal "Made of Honor" and "Surviving Christmas"), reportedly with an anonymous assist from Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire," "The Full Monty").
The script, credited to Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, endeavors to whip up some romantic chemistry by having Declan peg Anna as snooty and she regard him as provincial, but Bringing Up Baby or even Moonlighting this most assuredly isn't.
This film is unquestionably the most unromantic and downright despairing rom-com since Made of Honor or, possibly, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Anna (Adams) is coiffed and costumed to resemble an uptown cross between The Quiet Man-era Maureen O'Hara and vintage Nicole Kidman, but the character is ill-flavored with a sort of ugly-American perkiness that sets your nerves on edge and makes you wonder in all seriousness if Tucker isn't employing some sort of wickedly dry, highly unsubtle cultural critique on both the U.S. and Ireland.
While watching Leap Year, I swear I could hear the Irish countryside quietly weeping as it witnessed Goode and Adams slog through the film's succession of trite misadventures, the talented actors straining in vain to manufacture some semblance of romantic chemistry as an assortment of jolly Waking Ned Devine types futilely spurred them on.
Then there's Emily Watson ("Trixie," "Hilary and Jackie") in another solid performance as the head housemaid with a secret, Michael Gambon ("Charlotte Gray," "The Insider") as the surly lord of the manor, and Helen Mirren ("Teaching Mrs. Tingle," 'The Madness of King George") as the head housekeeper.
In 2008 it was "27 Dresses."
And, apparently, Hollywood has a bottomless pit of this drivel from which to feed that gaping, witless maw – with films like “27 Dresses,” “The Ugly Truth,” “New in Town” – and now this film.
Like this one, for example, seems less horrible than the others simply because the main female character isn't humiliated and degraded (see stats below) and stupidly obsessed with her wedding at the expense of all other thought quite as much as the women in films like, say, 27 Dresses or Bride Wars.
Newton Thomas Sigel's (2010's " Leap Year ") cinematography pulsates with energy and inspiration whether the camera is moving or standing still, while the irreplaceable use of music is phenomenal and cool, full of moody, '80s-inspired synth beats that help to illuminate Driver's very being.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)
Directed by Marc Lawrence
influenced Leap Year (2010)
Characters
First there was Sarah Jessica Parker 's go-go broker in Did You Hear About the Morgans?
But like Sarah Jessica Parker in “Did You Hear About the Morgans?,’’ Adams seems embarrassed by the confidence needed for a part like this.
The character doesn't need to hate Dublin for the story to work, but it gives the screenwriters -- Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who also wrote "Josie and the Pussycats," "Can't Hardly Wait," and "Surviving Christmas" -- an excuse to tell us, later on, WHY he hates Dublin, which of course is that it's where a woman who broke his heart lives.
(Their collective output includes “Josie and the Pussycats,’’ “Shopgirl,’’ and “Surviving Christmas.’’)
Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont ( Josie and the Pussycats ) wrote the script.
Written by the dread team of Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (authors of such classics as “Made of Honor,” “Josie and the Pussycats” and “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas”), “Leap Year” stars Amy Adams as Anna, a control freak from Boston who, in the early scenes, is disappointed when her drippy doctor boyfriend (Adam Scott) fails to propose marriage at a ripe moment.
Yes, the screenwriters of “Made of Honor,” “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas,” and “Josie and the Pussycats” (which they also directed) are the masterminds behind “Leap Year,” and their special sludge of awful is called upon yet again to smother a routinely peaceful genre.
The character doesn't need to hate Dublin for the story to work, but it gives the screenwriters -- Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who also wrote "Josie and the Pussycats," "Can't Hardly Wait," and "Surviving Christmas" -- an excuse to tell us, later on, WHY he hates Dublin, which of course is that it's where a woman who broke his heart lives.
The character doesn't need to hate Dublin for the story to work, but it gives the screenwriters -- Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont, who also wrote "Josie and the Pussycats," "Can't Hardly Wait," and "Surviving Christmas" -- an excuse to tell us, later on, WHY he hates Dublin, which of course is that it's where a woman who broke his heart lives.
(Their collective output includes “Josie and the Pussycats,’’ “Shopgirl,’’ and “Surviving Christmas.’’)
The all-around carelessness of the project extends to the by-the-numbers script credited to Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (the team behind the immortal "Made of Honor" and "Surviving Christmas"), reportedly with an anonymous assist from Oscar winner Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire," "The Full Monty").
What is undeniably the worst aspect of the movie, however, is that screenwriters Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont's (" Surviving Christmas," "Made of Honor") work is being treated as original when what they have done is a charmless hack of Powell and Pressburger's " I Know Where I'm Going" with a dash of "Local Hero's" (itself based on "I Know Where I'm Going") all purpose innkeeper thrown in.
If you’ve seen any of screenwriting duo Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont’s previous films, including Made of Honor and Surviving Christmas, you can anticipate pretty much every frame of its doggedly, almost abrasively cut-and-paste plot, from the opening montage of Boston real estate fluffer Anna’s (Adams) life, which runs with Swiss Watch precision — except for that dang doctor boyfriend (Adam Scott) who seems to love but won’t marry her — to her bitter humbling in the Irish countryside and wacky circumstantial bunk-up with an earthy chauffeur named Declan (Goode) who shows her the error of her tight-assed, materialistic American ways.
Oscar-nominated for her supporting roles in “Junebug” and “Doubt,” she has also appeared in well-regarded films including “Catch Me If You Can,” “Enchanted” and last year’s “Julie & Julia.”
Adams, an exceedingly promising American actress as evidenced by turns in Catch Me If You Can , Junebug , and Doubt , demeans herself now in picaresque cash grab Leap Year when her Anna, wanting to be betrothed to douchebag cardiologist Jeremy (Adam Scott), is pushed into the brawny arms of bog-trotting Declan (Goode) in a happy-go-smacky Forces of Nature imbroglio.