Leap Year (2010)

I never wrote a review about any movie ever. If I watch any bad film, I just gonna think (well, wasted 2hrs of my life.. okay lets move on) not this one. This one is just scarred me for life. I've never been feminist myself but its just simply stupid. its just make me angry with the man and the woman. Its disgusting, pointless, too much porn action that super unnecessary (ok I watch it one or two actions, cool yeah I got it. no need too much) and BDSM that want to make this movie look a like 50 shades of Grey - Mexican version only poor and more cruel. i live in Bangkok where most of the times, I think of how morally depraved and I feel sad of the situation here as in prostitution and any sort of real life problem for people who faced it. The depression, the loneliness, the hope of from a woman who work here, in a Soi Cowboy or Nana Plaza, to get a man - who maybe one day actually going to care or fall for her. Or at least know their name. You could smell the sadness from hundred yards away if you live here. but this movie is just...... i don't even understand..... like really.......Too many pis***g scene (as the guy pis**d and the woman pis**d in toilet) - if I'm into water sport porn or pis***g movie - i can just use that keyword in any porn siteI feel so frustrated because i hope in the end of the movie - there will be some sick twisted that make me not so evil by watching this. But its not. I just feel like I want to shower and pray to Universe and clean myself for what I just watch. I feel I lost my humanity by watching this movie. I don't get any "moral or life lesson or this is what life nowadays, guys". nope, didn't get that message. nu'uh. zilch. Nada.But then again, thats just my opinion. I realize nobody cares. I just share what i feel now and i feel satisfaction by doing it.I am sure, for you guys who super smart and understand about humanity and real life, maybe you could gain some lesson and found it interesting.For me everything is confusing and frustrating, either the girl want to suicide, or she want this guy to kill her, or is she incest and who took her virginity, nothing is answer. nothing. too foggy like pollution in China. if i want to watch or see something that too frustrating - i could just watch politics or real life news everyday, not a film.

Leap year is the story of the encounter or rather the break up of Laura and Arturo. Apparently this is a simple story but it contains a lot of details worth taking a second look at. The Australian director and screenwriter who lives in Mexico submerges us in a visual world that is plain and charmless for Mexican standards and someone might be tempted to judge the film by its visual austerity. But this perspective allows Michael Rowe to explore the solitude of Laura, her detachment from others and to slowly introduce us into her adventures with man, what she searches in them or better said who she would like to encounter in them. After seeing the film a close friend told me it was anti Hollywood. Definitely it does not embody a mass market aesthetic. The dark skinned actors and the unappetizing looks of the apartment where the action takes place are ideal to center the attention of the spectator on what is happening to the main character. Scenes like Laura taking off her bra underneath her shirt, picking her nose while working on her computer submerge us into an uncomfortable bodily intimacy. And there are also the very explicit sex scenes with exquisite violence full of details I don't even feel free to mention here that are not exciting in the usual sense but awaken a deep curiosity for the character. This movie was not shown in the Mexican commercial circuit. What does it mean when society that not willing to see herself in the mirror. When Michelangelo Antonioni answered critics of his movie The adventure (1960) he used these words "Eros is sick, man is uncomfortable and this makes him react but he does so in the wrong way, he explores eroticism and he is unhappy".

The problem with this movie isn't the content or the nature of the story. Yes, it wallows in brutal and degrading sex. Yes, it excuses violence against women. Yes, it has a bleak outlook on life. But I can handle those.The real issue is that the film is just plain bad. The writing is turgid, the directing uninspired, and the acting amateurish. The first 45 minutes could have been told in 15--or even 10--by a competent filmmaker. When it finally got to the real nastiness, I fast-forwarded past it. As I said, I can handle it, but why degrade myself when there's no point? In fact, since my DVD player still showed me the subtitles when running at double speed, I had no trouble following the tissue-thin plot. That's right: this movie is paced at less than half the rate the viewer could absorb.In the end, the filmmakers only have one thing to tell us, and it's not at all profound. Actually, I take that back: despite all the raves from other reviewers, I don't think the film has anything at all to say. It's just one more "Look at me, I'm an 'artiste' and isn't it cool how I can shock you?" movie.I recommend that you watch an Adam Sandler movie instead of this one. Sandler's films are also awful, but at least they have a point.

"Leap Year" is simple, albeit brilliant filmmaking. There is very little, if any, "coverage" for each and every shot. No close-ups, no pans, no dolly shots, no cranes, no over-the-shoulder, and no reaction shots. The camera remains still and static throughout - time and time again simply letting the drama unfold before our eyes. We are nothing more than a voyeur. It's a bold choice - perhaps born out of budget necessity - but it nonetheless works. What's makes every shot absolutely fascinating is called "life." Human behavior. The success of this film is a tribute to the director, his belief in the story, and most of all, the trust he was able to get from his actors. Although the camera rarely moves, it tells the story better than most Hollywood directors with a much bigger budget ever could.