Leap Year (2010)

Romantic comedy. 

An American woman (Amy Adams) travels to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend, who after four years hasn’t asked her to marry him. (She’s honouring an old tradition in which it becomes acceptable for the roles to be switched every four years.) Once in Ireland she meets the unrefined but free and independent Declan O'Callaghan (Matthew Goode) and inevitably they fall in love. 

The film tries to trade on Irish clichés but doesn’t even do that very well. The focus-grouped checklist gives you nice scenery (admittedly excellent), an Irish wedding (visually and tonally flat: a missed opportunity), Irish music (sometimes replaced by American music: another missed opportunity) and an Irish castle (which doesn’t look real and may be just a matte painting). 

There’s very little wit in the script, and dialogue that might have sparkled simply falls flat. The main couple are watchable and likeable, and Amy Adams is always a delight, but there’s very little here for them to go on.

Footloose (1984)

Ren McCormack (Kevin Bacon) is a Chicago teenager who comes to the town of Bomont, Utah, where rock music and dancing have been banned and the oppressive rule of the troubled local minister (John Lithgow) imposes rigid, puritanical social control. Ren falls for the minister’s daughter, Ariel (Lori Singer, who I had a major crush on when she was the cellist in the Fame TV series), and gets the town dancing again.

Music is given prominence throughout, and in some ways it’s merely a glorified pop video, but actually there’s much more going on. If you can see past the product placement (Coca Cola appears in countless scenes), there’s a very interesting drama unfolding. The theme of small-town repression is explored in depth. There’s also a thread about violence against women, with Lori Singer being hit by two different men.

For once, there’s no obsession with social climbing. Instead, the film proposes that self-expression is the path to liberation. Dancing to music really can set you free.