Leap Year isn’t a movie for a sunny afternoon, but Rowe’s small tale of sex and despair is a tough trip worth taking.
Michael Rowe’s impeccably performed debut focuses on 29 days in the life of Laura Lopez (Monica del Carmen), a lonely freelance journalist who spends her evenings drifting from one meaningless sexual encounter to the next.
This routine leads Laura to Arturo (Gustavo Sánchez Parra), and as the sexual relationship gradually intensifies, his increasingly demeaning requests tap into a traumatic event in her past. But will an important red-letter day marked on Laura’s calendar bring her life of pain, empty sex and urban alienation to an end?
Set entirely in the confines of Laura’s small apartment, Leap Year is a raw and claustrophobic study of loneliness and isolation. Key to the film’s hypnotic appeal is Del Carmen’s tender and restrained performance, which makes it all the more affecting when we watch her slowly lose her grip on life.
Leap Year isn’t a movie for a sunny afternoon, but Rowe’s small tale of sex and despair is a tough trip worth taking.
