“Leap Year” Opens Friday: Would You Propose?

By Amanda Pendolino on January 7th, 2010

In the new romantic comedy Leap Year (which opens this Friday), Amy Adams plays Anna, a frustrated woman whose boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) won’t propose to her. After he goes on a business trip to Dublin, Anna hears about an old Irish tradition in which women propose to their boyfriends on Leap Day (February 29).

Anna jets off to Dublin to propose, but things go awry (it is a movie, after all) and winds up in Wales, where she meets the hot, brooding Declan (Matthew Goode). He agrees to take her to Dublin, but all kinds of storms and sheep get in their way. The trailer, which appears to basically tell us the whole movie, shows us that Adam does eventually propose to her, but does she still want to marry him? Something tells me the hot European is a better option…

I agree with Declan that it’s a bit unreasonable to base the biggest decision of your life on a silly tradition, but is the idea of proposing to your boyfriend so crazy? Woman can be the breadwinners, keep their last names, and do all sorts of modern things — so why is proposing still a decidedly manly thing? For me, I guess it’s that I wouldn’t want to marry a guy who didn’t want to propose. A friend of mine refuses to join Match.com because she doesn’t want the kind of guy who needs Match.com — and it’s sort of the same principle. Either he doesn’t like you that much, or he’s not confident enough (or both).