Movie: Leap Year

Leap Year is a nice sweet romantic comedy of Anna (Amy Adams) wishing to follow an Irish tradition and propose to her boyfriend on leap day (2/29) while he is at a business trip in Dublin.  Things go wrong when bad weather kicks in and she is forced to land somewhere else.   She manages to make her way to the Dingle Pennisula, where she asks a cynical local innkeeper Declan (Mathew Goode) to drive her from the countryside to Dublin, who initially refuses and constantly ridicules her on her idiotic behave.  What happens next is easy to guess.



The movie is a minor letdown if it weren't for Amy Adam's and Mathew Goode's great performances.  Since Amy Adam's great performances in Junebug and Enchanted, I've been following her work.  Here, she plays the sweet but determined woman again with great effectiveness.  Mathew Goode is not recognizable from his part as the villain Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias  in Watchmen, but he is equally convincing and good as the arrogant guy who constantly mouths sarcasm towards Anna but cannot help falling in love with her later on.

The most memorable scene is when they attend a wedding, the bride toasts his husband in a very poetic and touching speech:


I don't want to interrupt a good party, but l want to say thank you to my husband.
I want to say, may you never steal, lie or cheat.
But if you must steal, then steal away my sorrows.
And if you must lie, lie with me all the nights of my life.
And if you must cheat, then please cheat death,
because I couldn't live a day without you.

「敗犬求婚日」是由「曼哈頓奇緣」的女主角Amy Adams領銜主演的愛情喜劇。故事在講甜美的Anna，因為急著想和男友結婚，因此決定趁她男友去愛爾蘭出差的時候，飛過去按照當地的習俗，在閏年的閏日2月29號和他求婚。這天收到女方求婚的，必須得答應才行。不過，一連串的衰事，使得Anna沒有到首都Dublin，反而是到了西南邊極鄉下的Dingle半島。在百般的要求下，當地客棧的主人Declan因需要錢而答應載她到Dublin。兩人一開始就是死對頭，爭執不斷，不過漫長的旅途中，二人之間的關係慢慢轉變，進而萌生出來的是二人的愛意。

如客觀評論，這部片其實相當普通，但個人相當喜歡Amy Adams，特別是她在「妙媳婦見公婆」(Junebug)中Ashley女配角一職，還有「曼哈頓奇緣」裡的公主，將那種美國傻大姐的角色演得非常傳神。這部片裡，她也飾演類似的角色。雖然不如之前二片一樣那麼出眾，但卻也是這部份主要的看頭。另外，演Declan的Matthew Goode，看不出來他是在「守護者」裡的大反派，不過這兒，他也將那個傲慢無禮，語帶諷刺的人物表現得很好，也是劇中與Anna脣槍舌戰中裡的許多笑點。

片中最感人且微美的一段，當是他們二人莫名奇妙去參加一場婚禮時，新娘像新郎敬酒時所說的一段話。由於翻譯起來，會有點失去來的感覺，所以只好麻煩參照上面英文的部份了。