Michael Rowe's Leap Year is an exercise in minimalism and intense character portrayal, that while compelling is let down by the flaw in its own logic.
This
style of film could have been filmed anywhere and been about anyone. It is a
slow burn that gives the loner persona a disturbing refresh, but drags its
heels and the effect wears off, particularly due to the unbelievable plot.
Laura
(Monica del Carmen) is the mostly quiet, troubled protagonist. The film opens
with her shopping in a brightly lit aisle. Her grocery choices reflect her as
an individual, instant meals for one, as she checks out she glances at a male
shopper; longing in her eyes.
She
goes home, performs many menial laborious tasks. She drifts through her tiny
apartment. She stares out her window; a seemingly normal couple in the next
building across become her objects of desire. Days pass, being marked on her
calendar. Every day is a clone of the one before it; she works from home, masturbates out of boredom and
calls her family occasionally; very word from her mouth a lie about the
life she is leading.
This routine malaise continues for a time, until something different eventuates, it
is the weekend and she brings a stranger home for some intense but short sex. At
first glance it seems she craves intimacy, she reaches out to be held for just
a few moments but the partner is gone, even calls his wife to explain he will
be late home. He is completely disconnected from her and her situation.
Other
than the opening scene the camera does not leave the apartment and it begins to
close in creating a sense of claustrophobia. She begins to spiral out of
control, her relative visits and she maintains a facade of normalcy on the
outside, but on the inside yearns for something. The final day of the month is
given significant markings but is left without explanation.
Her
routines become more antisocial as she brings home desperate one night stands.
One of them hits her during love making, suddenly she is happy and excited. It
was not intimacy she craved after all.
A
very disturbing picture is then painted of Laura as she excitedly marks her
calendar, her daddy issues emerge and her dysfunctional masochistic
relationship with her boyfriend become more intense with every session as he
performs more degrading and sadistic acts on her that venture into taboo. Her
death wish becomes clear.
The
power shifts and she is in control; she was from the beginning and suddenly her
intention is clear.
Leap Year culminates in an anticlimax that really lets the film down. This is a logic problem; the plausibility of the plot was really something that could not be ignored. Essentially she was searching for a suitable depraved individual to harm her as she is constantly disappointed by the boring sexual partners she would randomly pick up in clubs. She has access to the internet, she has a phone. There are many easy ways to find sado-masochistic services and people, and this was a ridiculous oversight that could not be overlooked.
nstead of wasting half the film with random sex, Laura should have and would have gone straight to a source for her ultimate goal, as she was clearly on a timeline.