Movie Reviews

See Bridges, but rent 'Tender Mercies'

Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) crooning a country tune.  (20th Century Fox)

Crazy Heart 

---

---

Running time: 111 minutes

MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, adult situations)

---

On the Web

"Crazy Heart"

Jeff Bridges channels the late Waylon Jennings and the still-great Merle Haggard in the country-rock-twanged "Crazy Heart."

The movie itself channels "Tender Mercies" (1983), a far superior woeful tale of a down-and-out country music road warrior who's seen a little success in his past and too many bottles of whiskey in his present.

Bridges ("Men Who Stare at Goats," "Iron Man'), a fine actor already named best actor at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards, the Screen Actors Guild Awards and a slew of others, looks like a shoo-in for his fifth Academy Award nomination on Tuesday.  

With the exception of some of the tunes by T Bone Burnett ("Walk the Line," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") and the late Stephen Bruton (Texans both), though, Bridges is the only real reason to see "Crazy Heart."  

Officially based on Thomas Cobb's novel of the same title, "Crazy Heart" stars Bridges as road weary country-rock crooner Bad Blake.  Maggie Gyllenhaal ("The Dark Knight") plays second fiddle as Jean, a local New Mexico journalist who falls for the Bad guy and tries to "fix him."  

Gyllenhaal isn't awful as a single mom who can't resist the charm of an older fallen star.  Nor is she exceptional.

Even though I generally really like anything Colin Farrell does on screen, I never believed  the Irish actor as Bad Blake protégé-made-good Tommy Sweet for a second.

First-time director Scott Cooper, an actor who adapted the novel himself, might have made things a little easier on himself if, when Bad shows up at Jean's door to plead for a second chance, he didn't include a line like this:

Jean (after hearing that the troubled singer is finally clean and sober):  "That's good, Bad."

No, that's just bad.  

Like Don Quixote, who charged windmills in "Man of La Mancha" because they might be giants in disguise, I dream the impossible dream that once a classic movie is made, there should be no tampering, remaking or, in this case, re-imagining, whether it be in novel form, on screen or both.

The late Horton Foote won an Academy Award for his "Tender Mercies" screenplay.  Foote might not turn over in his grave if he knew that Robert Duvall, who took Best Actor Oscar honors as the rascal-on-the-mend in "Tender Mercies," doesn't just appear in "Crazy Heart," but gets a producer credit as well.

But I can't help thinking that Foote would cringe a little.

See this one for Bridges' good, if not outstanding performance if you must.  Just remember to stop off and rent a copy of "Tender Mercies" on the way home.  You'll see how the masters worked an all-too similar story.

'Mad' Mel returns with an itchy trigger finger

Mel Gibson returns to the screen as a father out for revenge.  (Warner Bros.)

Edge of Darkness

---

---

Running time: 112 minutes

MPAA rating: R (extreme bloody violence, harsh profanity)

---

On the Web

"Edge of Darkness"

Apparently, even big-time movie star filmmakers aren't immune to the seven-year itch.

Mel Gibson directed "The Passion of the Christ" and "Apocalypto" during his acting interim.  He returns to a starring role after not being in front of a camera (police mug shots don't count) since sharing the screen with Robert Downey Jr. in the little-seen offbeat, goofy, musical comic-mystery "The Singing Detective" (2003).

In the volatile crime-thriller, "Edge of Darkness," Mad Mel reverts back to a combo persona.  He's both a jittery police officer (The "Lethal Weapon" franchise) and a martyr ("Braveheart").

Gibson, showing a little gray in his hair and sporting deeper facial wrinkles, takes on a Boston accent and the role of Bean Town police detective Thomas Craven.  Before he can even fetch a ginger ale for his visiting 24-year-old daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic), Emma is gunned-down on the front porch.

If you thought Gibson was a lethal weapon before, hell hath no fury like a single father whose only child spills blood (but not quite critical secrets) in the hallway.

His daughter was involved in a plot that exposes not only radiation, but the worst byproducts of business and politics.  In this case, that means a ruthless force of evil in the form of Danny Huston gloating over the fact that he's up to no good.  It also means bullets flying everywhere and a whole new sarcastic definition for the catchphrase "Got milk?"

"Edge of Darkness," directed by capable New Zealander Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale," "The Legend of Zorro"), is a remake of sorts.  Screenwriters Andrew Bovell and Oscar-winner William Monahan ("The Departed") have condensed the mid-1980s BBC miniseries of the same title into an entertaining, if brutally violent two-hour melodrama.

To say that this thing erupts into violence before a hat can even be dropped is an understatement akin to, "Hey, the economy has taken a slight downturn."

In fact, I have to go all the way back to John Woo's highly stylized, but wonderful assassin thriller "The Killer" of 1990 to find anything that matches the firepower.  It sounds odd to say that a movie about people getting killed left and right is fun.  This one is, though, when it's not pushing the envelope too far into silliness.

"Edge of Darkness," originally a Cold War thriller, heats up this time with vigilante justice and some oddly memorable acting moments between Gibson, who's still got it, and excellent British actor Ray Winstone (Mr. French in "The Departed") as mysterious enforcer Darius Jedburgh.

Winstone, unlike Mr. Gibson, never lost it.

'La Danse' to the music

Laetitia Pujol and Nicolas Le Riche rehearse "The Nutcracker."

La Danse:  The Paris Opera Ballet

---

---

Running time: 157 minutes

No MPAA rating: (suitable for all age groups)

---

On the Web

"La Danse:  The Paris Opera Ballet"

"La Danse:  The Paris Opera Ballet" is the ultimate backstage pass to the fascinating world of tutus and pointe shoes.

A must-see and, in fact, euphoria for ballet aficionados, veteran documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman's study of gifted dancers preparing for seven ballets offers enticement for dance novices as well.

Mostly in French with subtitles, "La Danse" drops the audience backstage with absolutely no fanfare and no set-up.  Wiseman, taking a minimalist approach, offers no narration and no indication of who's who.

Instead, we're privy to every nook and cranny of the Palais Garnier, which has served as the renowned ballet company's home since 1875.  Wiseman and cinematographer John Davey have obviously set a lofty goal of celebrating what Wiseman has referred to as "the highest level of achievement in the conscious use of the body to express feeling and thought."

Noted choreographers put les étoiles (the stars) through sometimes grueling rehearsals, pointing out what appears to a novice as the tiniest flaw.  When dancers and choreographer are finally in sync, Wiseman ("Domestic Violence," 2001), who's been making documentaries for four decades,  moves on.

But not always to more rehearsals of a mixture of modern and classic ballets ranging from the old chestnut "The Nutcracker" to "Orpheus and Eurydyce" from avant-garde choreographer Pina Bausch.  Wiseman's camera often wanders the storied halls.  He focuses for a while on a worker painting a door, then visits the lunch room (the fish looks good).  He even takes us up on the roof to see what a beekeeper is up to as he (or she, can't tell really in that protective suit) gathers honey.

Unless you're keenly familiar with ballet on the international level, chances are that company director Brigitte LeFevre is the only person you'll get to know well.  LeFevre offers an in-depth primer into what it takes to mount a world-class ballet.

She holds business meetings to decide just how close serious patrons (with donations of $25,000 and up) can get to the dancers during a hobnob luncheon.  In another meeting, LeFevre emotionally nurtures (but not too gently) one of the dancers one-on-one in her office.

The focus, of course, always returns to the sometimes breathtaking flow of body parts as some of the most gifted dancers in the world generate fluid motion in search of ballet perfection.

Those unfamiliar with ballet, or perhaps only mildly interested, might squirm a little in their seats before this exquisite backstage pass expires.  After all, "La Danse" occupies the screen for over two and a half hours.

If you love ballet, however, "La Danse" makes its intimate exclusive access pointe and then some.

Got kids? You can handle the 'Tooth'

Derek (Dwayne Johnson) has wings, but he's no angel.  (20th Century Fox)

Tooth Fairy

---

---

Running time: 102 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (mild profanity, rude humor, violent sports action)

---

On the Web

"Tooth Fairy"

I never saw Dwayne Johnson play football as a defensive lineman for the U of Miami, or greased-up and getting it done as WWE wrestling star The Rock.

I know this, though, Johnson is one fearless son of a gun in front of a movie camera.

We know now that spectacle wrestling is fake, or at the very least, orchestrated.  Comedy, however, is real, and really hard to pull off.

"Tooth Fairy" is just the latest example that the guy is willing to do anything to make a movie audience laugh.

My favorite Johnson performance came in the little seen "Be Cool," the 2005 sequel to "Get Shorty," where he played a gay, lisping bodyguard.

Since then Johnson has hammed it up in the remake  of "The Race to Witch Mountain" and played an egomaniac NFL quarterback whose life is turned upside down when an unexpected young daughter appears out of his freewheeling past ("The Game Plan").

"Tooth Fairy" takes Johnson back into a sports arena and, we should add, into a pink tutu while sporting feathery Tooth Fairy wings.

Derek Thompson (Johnson), a Michigan minor league hockey player with a bum shoulder and a bum attitude, is summoned to serve Tooth Fairy duty after quashing a kid's dream of playing in the NHL someday.

A reluctant sprite at best, Derek bungles Tooth Fairy duty at first.  The pink tutu was a Fairyland wardrobe malfunction.  So that's fixed, but Derek still has a little problem using too much amnesia dust, etc. on his way to learning some important life lessons.  He gets those from his guide fairy Tracy (British actor Stephen Merchant) and Lily, the Chief Tooth Fairy portrayed with some verve by Julie Andrews.

Written by a committee of six (usually a very bad sign), "Tooth Fairy" is about as silly as family comic fantasy comes.  Director Michael Lembeck, who was at the helm of the second and third "Santa Clause" comedies, somehow pulls it all together enough to provide a fun comic romp much of the time.

Johnson, who smiles too broadly and too often to really score as a comic actor, does anyway.  Go figure.  Ashley Judd's smile as Derek's girlfriend Carly looks forced, unfortunately.  Judd (Where's she been?) appears to just be going through the motions at times.

Actually, Billy Crystal, who plays Fairyland gadget guru Jerry, is the funniest cast member.  Oddly, though, Crystal is mentioned nowhere in the film's credits or press notes.  Odder still, Crystal dropped by NBC''s "Jay Leno Show" on Thursday night to promote the film.

Oddest (Is that a word?) of all, however, is that I had a semi-severe toothache when I attended the preview screening of "Tooth Fairy."

But this is not about me.  If you have kids who are young enough to still enjoy hanging out with, you know, parents, load 'em up and check out "Tooth Fairy."  You'll have some real family fun together.

And my toothache?  It's much better, thank you.

(OK, it's about me a little.)

The doctor is in, but really grumpy

Harrison Ford, left, and Brendan Fraser as good men who bump heads.

(CBS Films Inc.)

Extraordinary Measures

---

---

Running time: 106 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (thematic material, profanity, a mild suggestive moment)

---

On the Web

"Extraordinary Measures"

On TV, medical dramas with dire dilemmas are often referred to as disease-of-the-week movies.

The big screen is almost always a better fit for trauma dramas because of heftier budgets, which can lure quality actors and better production values.  For those of us taking the dramatic ride in a dark room filled with strangers, that translates into a better understanding of the medical challenge.

It can also mean you'll need an extra hankie or two.

"Extraordinary Measures," starring Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell, needs the extra dramatic bump the big screen (and the aforementioned production advantages) can bring.  Based on Geeta Anand's "The Cure," the highly emotional story revolves around one couple's dramatic race against time to save two of their three children stricken with the often-fatal Pompe disease.

Here's where the movie version gets tricky, however.  "Extraordinary Measures" is "inspired" by the valiant efforts of New Jersey businessman John Crowley (Fraser) and his wife Aileen (Russell).  Ford's loner, distinctly non-social research scientist, Dr. Robert Stonehill, is a fictional character.  He's a compilation of several doctors who jumped on the research bandwagon to assist the Crowleys and other parents and their children desperately in need of a drug quickly.

So this story begins in Portland, Ore. instead of New Jersey.  I don't have a problem with stretching the absolute facts a little to get a potentially grim story like this into a movie theater.  Let's face it.  Heightened reality is what makes us go to movies in the first place.

To put it succinctly, life often takes too long to unfold.  Movies need to get in and get out in a couple of hours.  One of the problems with the otherwise excellent "Flash of Genius" starring Greg Kinnear as the wronged inventor of the intermittent auto windshield wiper in 2008 was that it parlayed too many facts into the telling of the story.

Cut a few corners and combine some characters and semi-real life becomes more palatable on a movie screen.  Purists might scoff a little that Ford's Dr. Stonehill teeters on the edge of cliché with his pick-up truck and longneck beer, not to mention his habit of blasting vintage rock music throughout his lab.

It is, after all Harrison Ford.  No stranger to playing stone-cold, stone-faced loners (the stoic Indiana Jones, the stoic U.S. president in "Air Force One," the stoic Jack Ryan in "Patriot Games," etc.), Ford at least brings the tiniest bit of nuance to this research academic.

Screenwriter Robert Nelson Jacobs, an Oscar nominee for "Chocolat," does a good job of incorporating the kids -- especially Meredith Droeger as stricken Megan -- into what amounts to a battle of wills between two stubborn men and a pharmaceutical company with an eye on the bottom line as well as saving lives.

The dramatic pivot point, and, frankly, one of the reasons to invest in this heart-grabber, comes when Crowley gathers enough money to launch production and convinces a larger pharmaceutical company to join forces.  It calls for a team effort, which is as foreign to a certain research scientist as schmoozing venture capitalists.

I like Fraser more in a lighter kind of role; as a somewhat dufus leading man in comic-adventures like "The Mummy" franchise, for instance.

One of the elements "Extraordinary Measures" lacks to make the leap from an emotional, good film to cinematic magic is that director Tom Vaughan ("What Happens in Vegas") can't get Ford and Fraser to kick up the needed dramatic dust when they go toe-to-toe with life-changing decisions on the line. 

Room and bored, but deeply loved

Noé (Grégoire Collin), left, and  Joséphine (Mati Diop) ponder their future.

(The Cinema Guild Inc.)

35 Shots of Rum

---

---

Running time: 102 minutes

No MPAA rating: (profanity, smoking)

---

On the Web

"35 Shots of Rum"

During the opening moments of "35 Shots of Rum," you may wonder, as I did, why it's taking so long for something of consequence to happen.

We see a train yard, which turns out to be in or near Paris, and a solemn man smoking a cigarette.  He's watching metro trains come and go.

"35 Shots of Rum," in French with subtitles, sets its own schedule, just like the trains.

Deliberate and quite revealing in its own quiet way, this character study co-written and directed by French filmmaker Claire Denis revolves around a small ensemble of lives coupling and uncoupling.

Denis, who directed the well-received drama "Chocolat" in 1988, worked as an assistant to filmmakers Jim Jarmush ("Broken Flowers") and Wim Wenders ("Paris, Texas") earlier in her career.

It's no surprise, then, that the audience is asked to work a little to fully appreciate a story bursting with bridled emotions pulsating just below the surface.

The man at the train yard turns out to be Lionel (Alex Descas), a metro train conductor.  He's a widower of very few words, but also a man who transmits humility and dignity through his silence.  Lionel  has lived for a long time, it seems, with his daughter Joséphine (Mati Diop), who now attends college.

They're surrounded by long-time neighbors.  Gabrielle (Nicole Dogué), a cab driver, longs for a closer relationship with Lionel, and, in fact, may have had one at one time.  Noé (Grégoire Collin) is a mystery man who lives alone with his fat cat.  He's trying to decide whether to move on with his life.

Denis manages to entwine these lives in an intriguing manner that's fascinating, to say the least.

Lionel and Jo, for instance, enjoy a special closeness; a loving bond brought to the surface with fascination rarely realized on a movie screen.

It's also time for Jo to uncouple from her dad and forge a life of her own.  One of the things I admire most about this screenplay co-written by the filmmaker and Jean-Pol Fargeau (they also collaborated on "Chocolat") is that Jo is in no hurry to abandon the special bond with her father.

"35 Shots of Rum" reminds me of "O'Horten," the Norwegian import of late July about a train operator wandering through life after forced retirement.  "O'Horten" was quiet and quirky, though.  

This one is quiet, intriguing and deeply moving.

Heaven can wait

Susie (Saoirse Ronan) looks down on her family from the "in-between."

(DreamWorks Studios)

The Lovely Bones

---

---

Running time: 139 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (profanity, mature thematic material involving disturbing violent content and images)

---

On the Web

"The Lovely Bones"

All dogs go to heaven, according to animated movie lore, circa 1989.

In Peter Jackson's live-action stunner "The Lovely Bones," however, a bewildered 14-year-old girl wakes up in the "in-between" after being raped and brutally murdered by a sinister neighbor.

Jackson, the Oscar-winning New Zealander of "Lord of the Rings" franchise fame, takes what amounts to a little film and fluffs it up into something mystical and magical.

In fact, "The Lovely Bones" is mired in somewhat of an "in-between" itself.  "Lord of the Rings" devotees may want more forays into special effects, while fans of Alice Sebold's 2002 best seller could feel that Jackson gets more than a little carried away with computer-generated flights of fantasy and near-heavenly images.

The good news is that extremely fine acting in two of the key roles keeps this horrific story grounded enough to chill us audience members right down to our own bones (lovely or not).

Very capable young actress Saoirse Ronan was 13-playing-14 when this film went into production in New Zealand and Pennsylvania in the fall of 2007.  Ronan, nominated for a supporting actress Academy Award as the young accuser in "Atonement" that same year, fills her character Susie with love-of-life curiosity while she's alive, then effective sadness after a fatal lapse in judgment.

Susie's on her way home from school after staying for a film club meeting when lecherous neighbor Mr. Harvey (Stanley Tucci) lures her into an underground den in a cornfield.  He calls it a "clubhouse for the neighborhood kids."

The script by director Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens spares the audience some of the grisly details.  There's no doubt that a young girl thinking about her future as a photographer and a first kiss with a boy in her class has passed on and landed not in heaven, exactly, but in Jackson's colorful, ever-changing landscape that turns out to be the filmmaker's version of purgatory.

As the family grieves down below, Susie is torn between moving on to what appears to be heaven with other murdered children or watching her family from above.  Suzie also keeps an eye on her killer, even as he gets off scott-free and begins to set his sleazy sights on Susie's younger  sister Lindsay (Rose McIver).

The finest performance comes from Tucci as George Harvey, a loner who crafts doll houses by day and feeds his occasional feverish need to destroy the lives of children when no one's looking.  I've enjoyed Tucci's acting for a couple of decades.  And although he's magnificent opposite Meryl Streep as Julia Child's husband Paul in "Julie & Julia," I've never seen the Golden Globe nominee (for this performance) squeeze so much dramatic juice from a character.

"The Lovely Bones," while punctuated with visionary special effects (giant ships-in-bottles crashing into a purgatory reef is nothing short of visually incredible), has its shortcomings as well.  Mark Wahlberg, who stepped in at the last minute for Ryan Gosling, doesn't quite have the acting chops to constantly convince as a frustrated, devastated dad who lost his little girl.

Rachel Weisz fares better as his wife Abigail, a mother so emotionally distraught that she abandons her family when she can't stand it anymore.  This is certainly Jackson's film to conceive and bring to the screen.  I can't help thinking, however, that Susan Sarandon's Grandma Lynn is way over the top.  Does Jackson really need blatant comic relief in a tale so glum and moody?

Jackson and his collaborators deviate a bit from the book.  They cut back on the sexual nature of a key scene near the end, making "The Lovely Bones" more romantic.

It may be a little film played out on a grandiose palette, but the visually rich "Lovely Bones" kept me fascinated throughout its extended running time of almost two and a half hours. 

Eli's coming, hide your hate now

Eli (Denzel Washington) is not your everyday  action hero.  (Warner Bros.)

The Book of Eli

---

---

Running time: 118 minutes

MPAA rating: R (harsh profanity, extreme violence, adult situations)

---

On the Web

"The Book of Eli"

We've seen action-adventures with heart before.  The "Star Wars" sagas, for instance.

"The Book of Eli" packs an additional element:  soul.  Not the rock 'n' roll kind, either.  We're talking spiritual depth I've never seen in such a brutally violent near-future setting.

Denzel Washington is well-suited to play the soft-spoken Eli, a man (or something more) who walks among the falling ash of a seared, post-war Earth with a single purpose; to stay on his mysterious path west.

Washington, an Oscar winner as the ruthlessly corrupt cop in "Training Day" (2001), is equally at home on both sides of the integrity fence.  That helps one of the finest actors of his generation fit so effortlessly behind the sunglasses as a man (or perhaps more) who tries to avoid trouble, but is lightning fast with a machete when he's unable to avoid conflict.

That happens a lot in "The Book of Eli." It unfolds in a post-apocalyptic world of survivors and killers 30 years after "The War," or "the flash" as Eli sometimes refers to a conflict so brutal "that it blew a hole in the sky and the sun came down and burned everything up."

An enigmatic lone warrior, Eli's not unlike "Mad Max," the Australian futuristic wasteland warrior that launched Mel Gibson's career in 1979.  And there are similarities to Viggo Mortensen's character simply called Man in "The Road," which is currently on screen in some areas.

Eli is not looking for revenge as Mad Max was or even to protect a frightened son like Mortensen does in "The Road," however  He's got a book in his backpack that inspired this 30-year trek west.  

When the loner in sunglasses happens upon a lawless town ruled by a despot who controls the thieves, murderers and possibly worse who hang out in his saloon, Eli meets Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man as determined to get his hands on "the book" as Eli is to keep it.

Oldman, who appeared as Bob Cratchit, Marley and Tiny Tim in the recent  rehash of "A Christmas Carol," is an exceptional actor like Washington. And Oldman absolutely convinces as an egomaniac with power.

Despite the pleadings of his blind wife (Jennifer Beals), Carnegie sends his own step-daughter Solara (Mila Kunis of "Extract" and Jackie on "That '70s Show" on TV) into Eli's room to, shall we say, "charm" him into revealing all the tight-lipped mysterious traveler knows.

"The Book of Eli," while routine at times as the latest entry in the post-apocalyptic genre, also ventures where I didn't expect it to go.  That's a good sign.

Solidly directed by filmmaking twins Allen and Albert Hughes, who have built a reputation on gritty urban dramas like "Dead Presidents" and "Menace II Society," "The Book of Eli" opens up a new chapter in grisly action-adventures.

Here we have murder and corruption, for sure, but with an effective spiritual side that offers at least some hope of redemptive healing.

For lack of a better term, let's call it New Age Old Testament mayhem.

Que? Cera, Cera

Shy Nick (Michael Cera) tries to woo  Sheeni (Portia Doubleday).  (Dimension Films)

Youth in Revolt

---

---

Running time: 90 minutes

MPAA rating: R (profanity, action violence, drugs, smoking)

---

On the Web

"Youth in Revolt"

Outwardly meek "Juno" co-star Michael Cera, who's in his early 20s now, could probably play a high school student well into his mid-40s.

Cera gets the chance not once, but twice in "Youth in Revolt," a randy coming-of-age comedy.

The product of a dysfunctional broken Oakland home, somewhat eccentric Nick (Cera), 16, escapes into his love for Sinatra while his mother (Jean Smart) enjoys, shall we say, the company of a variety of men.

 

Her liaisons include Ray Liotta as police Officer Lance and Zach Galifianakis ("The Hangover") as someone who enjoys the opposite of the law.

Nickie falls helplessly in love himself.  But he needs a little encouragement from someone edgier and more aggressive to win over Sheeni (Portia Doubleday), who comes not from trailer park trash, but trailer park royalty of sorts.

Woody Allen's shy bumbling character conjured up the spirit of Humphrey Bogart to help him put the moves on Diane Keaton in "Play It Again, Sam" (1972).

In "Youth In Revolt," directed by Miguel Arteta ("The Good Girl") and based on C.D. Payne's 1993 novel, Nick relies on a suave imaginary alter ego named Francois, which is also Cera, but sporting an ascot, a pencil-thin mustache and an ever-present cigarette.

Nickie admires Francois.  He just can't be him, except, perhaps when his chance at spending serious time, if you know what I mean, with Sheeni is on the line.

It's a hoot to see Cera raise a little hell on screen and to let loose in an R-rated comedy.

"Youth in Revolt," while not a classic for the ages, at least flings cigarette ashes in the face of authority for young shy guys looking to date above their station.  

And it does so with wild abandon.  Francois demands it. 

Not really 'Leap Year,' not really that romantic

Arguing with "driver" Declan (Matthew Goode) is not the way Anna (Amy Adams) wanted to see Ireland.  (Universal Studios)

Leap Year

---

---

Running time: 101 minutes

MPAA rating: PG (profanity, sensuality)

---

On the Web

"Leap Year"

There's a rare real moment in the sanitized, formula romantic-comedy "Leap Year" when Amy Adams, playing a depressed American redhead in Ireland, looks like she might just take a lover's leap off a very tall, but lovely cliff.

Luckily for the audience pre-hyped to swoon at the notion of a woman engaged to one man but engaging with another -- a stranger, even -- in a foreign land, "Leap Year" soon gets back to the fun at hand; tossing one's cookies in one of the few romantic moments, or accidentally letting a high heel fly that hits a bride of only a few minutes squarely in the forehead.

Throw in an ill-timed hailstorm and a rainstorm or two and you've got about all "Leap Year" has to offer.

Screenwriting partners Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont ("Made of Honor," "Surviving Christmas") provide enough situational softballs for excellent actors Adams (the twice Oscar-nominated co-star of "Julie & Julia") and Matthew Goode ("Watchmen," "The Lookout") to keep this laughably forced scenario interesting some of the time.

A sidebar, your honor:  Kaplan and Elfont also collaborated with a couple other scribes on "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas." About half-way through a screening in San Antonio in 2000, a fire alarm sounded in the theater.  We all filed out.  Only about half of the audience bothered to return when the "All clear" sign was given.  

I can't say for sure.  But if a picturesque cliff was nearby, some of the audience members might have considered a leap instead of a return to the Fred and Barney banality.

I don't understand how really good director Anand Tucker, who called the shots on Steve Martin's "Shopgirl" as well as "And When Did You Last See Your Father?," got involved in something of such little character depth or directing challenge.

For the record, "Leap Year" plows through trite formulaic romantic-comedy in a year that doesn't even have a Feb. 29th.

Somehow, that makes sense.