Now that the fall Award season films have all been accounted for at least promotionally (we’ve seen the trailers, etc.) studios are starting to think ahead to the dreck, filler films they have ready to dump release at the beginning of the year dumping ground season.
Hence the arrival of the poster and trailer for “Leap Year,” a romantic comedy starring two actors we like, Amy Adams and Matthew Goode.
However, as you might expect, it looks excruciating, panders to every rom-com cliche in the book and even stoops so low to prey on the female insecurity of getting married and finding a man before a certain age. The premise, like many romcom premises, is borderline mentally retarded: women can propose to men in Ireland on a leap year and oh god, who cares…
It hits theaters January 8. The same people who loved, “PS, I Love You,” will probably adore this film. We’ve got no problem with rom-coms or films tailored to women (see the largely enjoyable — for the most part — “Julie & Julia”), but do most of them have to be so condescending to female audiences, treat them like morons and be bereft of any kind of intelligence?
We suppose these movies are made for an audience that loves these movies back in full, but that actually wanted to make me stab my eyes out.
The shocking thing? This was directed by Anand Tucker who was the director behind the excellent, “Hilary & Jackie” and the 1983 installment of the critically revered “Red Riding” trilogy (not to mention the not-amazing, but still occasionally interesting, “Shopgirl”). Has this trailer been manipulated beyond belief? Or is this just what he’s up to these days? Strange…