review x 2

what with an absent bloke at the present minute, I took the opportunity to chomp down some easily digest rom coms. cold rainy nights, kids asleep early due to back to school exhaustion, hot cup of organic chai, etc. anyway, let's just say it's a hazardous endeavour, sifting through the latest batch of awfuls, it roolly is. without workshopping the question overmuch, I'd say you'd be looking at a 1 for 6 strike rate, roughly. and you can just never ever tell by titles! case in point being the two I watched last night. "my girlfriend's boyfriend". independent, small budget, interesting cast, twisty turn plot. sounds good, right? wrong. beyond dreadful. dreary, pointless, chemistry-less, life wastage. can't even be bothered with a synopsis. 0/10. then you have "leap year", which is a dire title for what turned out to be a really lovely little flick. a couple of silly moments (see flying shoe hits bride in head), but overall everything a romcom should be. hoity toity boston girl (played by amy adams) with long time cardiologist boyfriend decides to take matters into her own hands when yet another year passes with no proposal. boyfriend is off to ireland for conference during a leap year (!), so she hops on a plane with the intention of surprising him with a proposal of her own - as per the old tradition of women proposing on feb 29. naturally, she strikes trouble in her quest, and is thrown into the care of a surly irish pub owner in a remote village, who happens to be the spectacularly gorgeous matthew goode, with beard (you just don't see enough bearded men on film these days, more's the pity). tall, dark, irishly lilted, taciturn, funny, clever, cranky, mischievous, etc etc. there's just no possible way that our heroine couldn't fall insanely in love with him under the circumstances. anyway, without revealing more, it's a well cast, well acted, tightly directed piece, shot mostly in rural ireland. predictable, but in a sweet and enjoyable way, with some lovely subversive moments to remind us that it's not hollywood. 8/10.