Taglines: Anna planned to propose to her boyfriend on February 29th. This is not her boyfriend.
Irish legend tells that, since the fifth century, women who find themselves in the land of luck can propose to their suitors who have yet to pop the question. The catch for these women longing to become legitimate fiancées? They only have 24 hours-once every four years-to utter those four little words to boyfriends who’ve been dragging their feet. And that day is February 29th.
When her four-year anniversary passes without a marriage proposal, apartment stager Anna Brady (Amy Adams) decides enough is enough. Investing in the ancient Irish tradition that allows women to propose to men on Leap Day, Anna decides to follow her cardiologist boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) from Boston to Dublin and get down on one knee herself. It’s just what her wayward-but-well-intentioned father, Jack (John Lithgow), would want her to do. Simple. Easy.
But when unreliable airplanes, inclement weather and bad luck leave the controlling Anna stranded on the other side of Ireland, she must enlist the help of the carefree-but-surly chef Declan (Matthew Goode) to get her across the country. And as Anna and Declan bicker across the Emerald Isle, they discover something they should have known all along: the road to love can take you to very unexpected places.
For more than a decade, writing partners Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont have been collaborating on comedies. With Leap Year, they admit that the concept for their latest project came to them very quickly. Kaplan recalls: “I was on a news website, and it was actually February 29th. There was a headline that read `Women in Ireland Propose on Leap Year Day,’ and I said to Harry, `Does this sound like a movie or what?’ We dropped what we were working on, and within two weeks we had the outline of the story. Within another two weeks, we had sold it to Spyglass. We then wrote it very quickly, and Amy signed onto it. It all happened lightning fast.”
The screenwriters were fascinated by the Leap Day stories they uncovered. Kaplan and Elfont knew that truth was stranger than fiction and felt this was an ideal proposition for a romantic comedy. “You read so many scripts where the premise seems forced,” Kaplan offers, “but this gave us the freedom to tell a simple but very credible love story. Here’s a story about a girl who’s going to propose to her boyfriend. This date gives her a specific day to get there, a country to go to that’s not her own, and you follow the journey. Because we had a framework and knew where we were going, it allowed us to dig in and create a more complex role for an actress to play.”
At the center of their story is Anna, a fastidious young Boston native who has spent a life leading with her head instead of her heart. She’s spent the past four years dating an up-and- coming cardiologist, and everything in her life seems perfect as she eagerly anticipates a proposal.
Elfont elaborates: “She has a father who was scattered and very irresponsible. Anna was forced early on to be the grown-up and to create a safe place for herself by making all these plans and knowing exactly what was coming next. She’s created that life with Jeremy, but there’s just one thing missing and she’s unsettled. When she hears about this Leap Year tradition, she believes that she can close the deal and everything will be exactly as she’s planned it.”
As the writing partners fleshed out the story, they knew that Anna personified the theme of their comedy: you can find a messy, fantastic love amidst chaos. “You can’t plan everything, and you have to let life happen to you in order to find happiness,” says Elfont. “You can try, but you’re not necessarily going to be happy. It’s a very modern idea that you can control everything and be completely in charge of your life. We try to be a bit old-fashioned about that.”
While their protagonist struggles with the trappings of contemporary life on America’s east coast, the roguish Declan is her polar opposite. Though he is an Irishman who leads with his heart, he is also no poster boy for emotional fulfillment. “Declan has had his heart broken, and he’s stopped moving forward; he’s stuck, and she’s stuck,” explains Kaplan. “Through this journey they are both able to move on. And the best way for them to move on is with each other’s help.”
When the premise for Leap Year was pitched to executives at Spyglass Entertainment, the producers found a story they believed had widespread appeal… and one that tossed out the notion of falling for your true love the moment you find him or her. “Not only did Anna and Declan not fall in love at first sight,” explains producer Roger Birnbaum. “What they felt for each other was actually extreme dislike at first sight. But the journey that they go on strips away all that they thought was true before. They learn a way to live and love by taking this trip together.”
Such was the producers’ confidence in the project that it went before cameras only one year after the initial pitch. The on-screen talent also shared that sentiment. Amy Adams signed on soon after Spyglass agreed to the project. Of choosing the comedy’s star soon after securing the rights, producer Gary Barber adds: “We’d seen Amy in Junebug, in Enchanted and, recently, in Doubt, and she displayed a great range of acting ability. Her sense of comedic timing was terrific.”
When Spyglass began its search for a director to helm the project, they came upon Thailand-born filmmaker Anand Tucker, whose sophomore film effort, Hilary and Jackie, earned the director a British Independent Film Award. Producer Jonathan Glickman recalls: “We were big fans of Shopgirl and Hilary and Jackie. We had a great telephone conversation with Anand, and he had such a knowledge and passion for the romantic-comedy genre. Then he went off to meet Amy Adams, who absolutely loved him. We felt he had what we needed in him and that he could elevate the story beyond a typical romantic comedy.”
Director Tucker describes his reaction to Elfont and Kaplan’s script, one that he found was about “reconnecting with yourself.” He notes: “It reminded me of those wonderful classic romantic comedies where ill-matched couples come together and go through their journey. It had a lovely balance of emotion and five or six fantastic set pieces that really are laugh-out-loud funny…and it’s genuinely touching.”
Not only did the screenplay move him, he was keen to work with Adams. Tucker recalls: “I got a call saying `Would you like to meet Amy?’Well, given that I’d seen Enchanted about 50 times because my little boy was obsessed by it, I thought Amy was a bit of a genius. I leapt at the chance, read the script quickly and was utterly charmed by it. I found myself on a plane to New York…and that was that!”
Soon after she read the script, Amy Adams agreed to become attached to Leap Year. In the past several years, she has risen from supporting player to global star. With a breakout performance in 2005’s independent Junebug and a career-changing role in the 2007 blockbuster Enchanted, Adams has selected films that showcase her cons talents at both drama and comedy. From last year’s powerful turn as a novice in Doubt to her blogging cook in Summer 2009’s hit Julie & Julia, the actress has steadily shot to the top.
The filmmakers believed Adams would bring a depth to the project that would take the audience away from the stereotypes often seen in romantic comedies. They found the actress very aware of not making Anna a one-dimensional, spoiled woman who needs to learn a lesson.
Producer Chris Bender elaborates: “Amy is undeniably likable. There’s an innocence in her eyes, no matter what she does. Her character begins the journey as hard-edged and aggressive yet, a woman living in a bubble. Still, you really empathize and care about her, while enjoying watching her literally get knocked down a few pegs as she travels through Ireland with Declan.”
Director Tucker describes the performer as “a supremely talented dramatic actress, but also a very talented comedian. You watch her go to work, and she nails every scene. She inhabits the role because you really believe her. You believe there really is this person called Anna from Boston that she’s created; that allows the movie to go quite broad when it needs to. It’s a difficult thing to marry together emotion and comedy, but Amy pulls it off with great style. She is one of those rare creatures who can do anything.”
Adams read Anna as “the type of woman who sets a timetable for herself and hits milestones and judges her life by the things she does. She believes she is independent and can have it all. Anna has a list of what that `all’ means: the husband, the job…she even has the kids planned out. Everything is planned and on a schedule and she’s not somebody who gets off her schedule often. She spends more time thinking about what she does rather than the type of person she is.”
The performer admits that she was drawn to Leap Year because of the script’s exploration “of how we set out to achieve and to acquire, but don’t necessarily set out on a path that is authentic. We are swayed off our path so often by shiny things. I was interested in this theme about getting to the truth of who you are.”
But she’s quick to add that Anna’s single-mindedness is the source of much of the film’s humor, including a number of scenes in which the reluctant traveler can’t escape the forces of nature driving Anna and Declan together. Adams laughs: “Any time you take somebody who thinks they know exactly who they are and exactly what they are doing, and show them that they have no clue, it’s a lot of fun. And I’m wet a lot…nothing is funnier than a wet actress.”
Anna’s quest to land her boyfriend in holy matrimony comes with one big hiccup: an Irishman named Declan on whom she must rely to get to Dublin. Adams elaborates on what is it about Declan that challenges Anna. “Everything,” she says. “He talks to her in a way no one has spoken to her; he raises questions. He is totally different to anything she has encountered on her path of avoidance. It sparks her, moves her in a different direction and, finally, it touches her. Anna isn’t someone who has allowed herself to feel that often, and this makes her feel. He makes her take note, he makes her question and she doesn’t like the answers she comes up with…until she realizes that this person and this place might be the answer.”
Leap Year (2010)
Directed by: Anand Tucker
Starring: Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott, Bill Nighy, Kaitlin Olson, John Lithgow, Dominique McElligott, Maggie McCarthy, Dominique McElligott, Mark O’Regan, Macdara Ó Fátharta, Kaitlin Olson
Screenplay by: Simon Beaufoy, Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan
Production Design by: Mark Geraghty
Cinematography by: Newton Thomas Sigel
Film Editing by: Nick Moore
Costume Design by: Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh
Set Decoration by: Johnny Byrne
Art Direction by: Colman Corish, Irene O’Brien, Anna Rackard, Brendan Rankin
Music by: Randy Edelman
MPAA Rating: PG for sensuality and language.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: January 8, 2010