Leap Year (2010)

Expected more

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Strange obsession with the approaching "leap year" anniversary of 29 February. Del Carmen's performance is powerful and painful. One Location Genre Film Making Masterpiece. There are loads and loads of detailing that can be described about this raw flick. Until finally the ending explains everything for you. But it's not easy to know what to think of it when it finally ends. I was left trying to figure out if I would consider the ending sad or happy. I'm not sure I was satisfied by the ending, but at the same time I thought it was good. I guess some movies are just there, and you can take from it whatever you wish. Albeit this movie delivers intense sense of alienation uncomfortable artistic totality of realism. Truth delivered at its rawest form. Soul- baring piece of cinema whose troubling eroticism is ultimately a vehicle for humane compassion.

The film's basic premise; and this isn't giving too much away since it's so heavily sign posted very early on, is that a woman must suffer severe abuse at the hands of a man in order to find happiness.Terrible film making. The way the camera lingers over scenes of torture and humiliation as if these things couldn't be illustrated in other ways.It is very possible to portray violence and sexual abuse of women without making it exploitative - Paddy Considine did it in the horrific scenes of 'Tyrannosaur' which, while harrowing, knew where to stop and leave things to the imagination. What really gets me about films like these is that people who know nothing of such abusive dynamics watch them and have the experience normalized. I'm sure many abusive husbands and partners will get great satisfaction seeing how their acts of violence and hate can actually help women (something they probably told themselves all along). This is a film which sends out the wrong message about violence towards women. To come back to 'Tyrannosaur', that film is not without flaws but it at least gets the emotional response of women to abuse right. Women do not just put up with rape and torture and then suddenly get better because of some leap of insight. It may seem that way to an abuser of course which is why 'Leap Year' is the ultimate abuser's fantasy. Told from a male perspective and dwelling obsessively on the imagined nobility of female suffering. A truly dangerous film.

This is a frustrating film to watch because it is extremely claustrophobic. After the opening scene, the entire film takes place inside a small apartment. There is little by way of plot. There are many scenes of the young woman talking on the phone with her mother and brother. She also gets visits from her brother. Mostly, however, she gets visited by a man who started as a one night pickup, but the pair starts developing a sado-masochistic relationship that becomes increasingly disturbing. This is an impressive film debut for writer-director Rowe, who favors long takes and a stationary camera, an approach that is effective in conveying the loneliness of the protagonist.

Monica del Carmen is Laura Velez, a journalist living alone in an apartment in Mexico. She spends most of her time there writing her stories or cooking for herself.She also picks up strangers for one night stands much like Diane Keaton in "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" years ago. Del Carmen is short, overweight and plain looking but she does an admirable job portraying a lonely young woman searching for something or someone, we're never quite sure what she wants or needs.The sex scenes are somewhat explicit for a mainstream movie, so if you are offended by such material, stay away.This is a technically simple story mostly shot in the apartment where Laura lives. He final partner has a sadistic streak, so be forewarned of some degrading behavior which is fairly unpleasant. That being said, I would like to see what Ms. del Carmen does in the future.