Leap Year

In Anand Tucker’s film Anna stages houses for sale in Boston while her boyfriend Jeremy is in Dublin at a cardiology conference. She flies after him trusting Bachelor’s Day, the custom letting a woman propose on 29 February. A storm puts her plane down in Cardiff, Wales. She hires a boat to Ireland, is landed at Dingle nowhere near Dublin, and pays Declan, who runs the local pub, 500 euro to drive her the rest of the way. The script’s real machinery is a question. At Ballycarbery Castle the two ask each other what they would grab if the house were burning and they had 60 seconds. Anna later runs that test at her own engagement party, pulling a fire alarm and watching what Jeremy picks up. The film’s real decision comes out of that scene. Shooting covered Wicklow, Dublin, Mayo and Galway, including the Aran Islands, Connemara and Waterford. The Irish press was harsh: Donald Clarke in the Irish Times called it reactionary and patronising, Paul Whitington in the Irish Independent a crude imitation of Irishness. Matthew Goode has said he signed on largely to work near home and see his newborn daughter. A good fit if you put landscape and bickering ahead of plot. Not for anyone who will mind Ireland drawn in pubs, cattle and rehearsed charm.