Leap Year <\/em>is a 2010 film, starring Amy Adams as Anna Brady, and Matthew Goode as Declan O\u2019Callaghan.\u00a0 Frustrated with her long time boyfriend\u2019s lack of a marriage proposal, Anna decides to travel to Dublin and propose to him on leap day, while he is there at a conference.\u00a0 She hits a few bumps in the road on her way to Dublin, and ultimately finds a travel partner in a surly Irish innkeeper, named Declan.\u00a0 By the end of the film, Anna comes to realize Declan is the person she wishes to spend the rest of her life with, as opposed to her long time boyfriend, and the two are married in Cork.<\/p>\n Aside from the cheesy love story and abundance of clich\u00e9s used throughout the film, the underlying plot centers around an old Irish legend, which allows women to propose to men on leap day.\u00a0 Supposedly, the tradition began when St. Brigid struck a deal with St. Patrick, in order to balance the traditional roles of men and women, similar to how leap day balances the calendar.\u00a0 Despite the folklore\u2019s romantic undertone, according to The Huffington Post\u2019s Stephanie Hallet, \u201cThe roots of the Irish tradition are dubious\u2026St. Brigid was just 9 or 10 years old when St. Patrick died in 461 A.D\u2026making the pair\u2019s friendship unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n Regardless of the story\u2019s validity, Americans such as myself, view the film as simply a romantic comedy, capitalizing on the differences between Americans and the Irish.\u00a0 Throughout the film, Anna continuously comments on Declan\u2019s strong Irish brogue, the relaxed attitudes of those she meets, and the importance placed on a true Catholic marriage.\u00a0 In turn, Declan is caught off guard by the value Anna places on material objects, her seemingly conceited personality, and low tolerance to alcohol.\u00a0 On each side of the spectrum, the film focuses on stereotypes typical to each nationality, yet considering the majority of the film occurs in Ireland, it is plausible the Irish may reject the movie for its subpar portrayal of Irish life.\u00a0 As a whole, the film did not receive rave reviews in the United States, yet Roger Ebert counters this negativity by saying, \u201cWhen was the last time you saw a boring Irishman in a movie?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Works Cited<\/p>\n Hallett, Stephanie. “Leap Year Proposal: What’s The Story Behind It?” The Huffington Post<\/em>. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Lauren Higginbotham Leap Year is a 2010 film, starring Amy Adams as Anna Brady, and Matthew Goode as Declan O\u2019Callaghan.\u00a0 Frustrated with her long time boyfriend\u2019s lack of a marriage proposal, Anna decides to travel to Dublin and propose… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,16],"tags":[82,81,83],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-behavior","category-film","tag-amy-adams","tag-leap-year","tag-matthew-goode"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}