You'll long for Matthew McConaughey to turn up just so you have something to laugh at.
Type A personality Anna (Amy Adams, whose character bears the hallmarks of all modern romantic-comedy heroines – ie she spends her time perfecting her obsessive-compulsive tendencies and contemplating her obligatory childhood trauma) encounters unlucky Oirish charmer Declan (Matthew Goode) while en route to Dublin to propose to her boyfriend on Leap Day.
A meet-not-so-cute in Dingle is followed by denial of said meet-cute as Anna and Dec romp about from one ‘hilarious’ mishap to the next. Adams and Goode are hampered by a witless script, which aims for It Happened One Night cross-country battle-of-the-sexes entertainment but misses the mark so completely (it isn’t even a leap year!) it makes you long for Matthew McConaughey to turn up just so you have something to laugh at.
There’s no smaltz here – just the kind of truisms that explore the life-long parent/child tussle.
Though Schwartzman’s indie presence gives Shopgirl an element of fresh and funny credibility, it’s too predictable, too callow – too New York.
While Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s ’70s-set directing debut has cinematic ambition, it never gets the action it deserves.
By Stacey Smith
