The Leap Years

If a man promises to meet you in four years time, but there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

What the hell?

That's an actual excerpt from Mediacorp-Raintree's latest box office smash hit blockbuster, The Leap Years. And no, I haven't confused it with some philosophical Zen musing. But other than that totally misplaced bit of literary garbage, how was the film? Let's have a look...

Superficially, the movie is the hybrid spawn of Before Sunrise, The Holiday and Growing Up, with Wong Li-Lin leading the "stellar" ensemble as a 24-32 year old teacher/writer Li-Ann, maturing and falling for a stranger she meets, while at the same time fending off the advances of her best friend KS (and yes, we are never told his full name, more into this later). The movie follows a slightly confusing time-line, with much of it actually being flashbacks as an older Li-Ann(not played by Li-Lin) recalls the good and the bad while tearfully scribbling a note on a piece of paper. Careful observers would be able to guess much of the plot from what she writes/narrates in these first few scenes.

After Li-Ann/Lin falls for the afore-mentioned stranger, a few poblems arise, and startlingly similar to the whole catch of Before Sunrise, they agree to meet on the same date again in the future. Of course, because the date was Feb 29 (hence the title, SO CLEVER!), they are only to meet in four years time.

I won't spoil it any more for those of you who choose to watch it in theatres, but all in all, this is probably the best locally-produced film I've ever seen. And it's not even because of Wong Li-Lin parading around in skimpy clothes (if any) or the hilarious revelation regarding Vernetta Lopez' character.

Still, there are a few complaints that I can (and will) make.

Firstly, while I felt that Wong Li-Lin (and whoever played her mom) did a fan-fucking-tastic job, carrying the whole movie, really, some of the supporting cast didn't raise their game. The bloke playing KS, for example, sounds like Microsoft Bob, if he was Chinese. I might agree that his character is supposed to be "poor" and supposedly "uneducated", but he sounds like he just got off the junk from Beijing.

And his comical ramblings about regret and mistakes lead me to the first line of this entry. The idiotic dialogue that peppers an otherwise watchable film. I'm not a huge fan of love stories or romantic comedies, though I did enjoy things like Love, Actually. But some of the things said in The Leap Years sound like they were written by a pre-pubescent schoolgirl with little to no experience or knowledge of how people actually talk. Given that the film was heavily based on a "novella" by a Doctor Catherine Lim, the directors and producers are either totally ignorant (or stupid), or the book got switched for Mr Kiasu.

Some have complained of "plot holes" within the film. Avid, loyal, wonderful, intelligent, amazing readers of this glorious site would have picked up hints that I absolutely abhore plot holes in films; this one, however, didn't really have any major ones, or else I was just cringing from the speech of Qi Yu Wu as he slaughtered the English language with little else but his thin lips and floppy hair. The absence of plot holes aside, however, I particularly disliked the ending.

Many have mentioned that the film did a good job of bringing tears to their eyes, and as far as the ending goes, that fails in epic proportions. Lipstick and white furniture are the only things that stand out from the final scene, and if it had gone the other way, it would have been much more touching, I felt. Unless of course they were crying from the way a certain someone was shooting off words like he had a block of wood in his mouth. Or at the way Vernetta Lopez looked for most of the movie - about ready to report to work at McDonald's.

So, here I am, about done with my latest review. What's the verdict? The last time I remember Wong Li Lin was in Triple Nine with James Lye. Let's just say The Leap Years is no VR Man.