My Romantic Style: Leap Year Sets My Heart A-leapin’
I WANNA GO TO IRELAND!!!
When you see the gorgeous views and watch equally gorgeous Matthew Goode tell the story of lovers who “consummated their love” prompted by the beauty of it all in the film “Leap Year”, well really, I WANNA GO TO IRELAND!!!
I know most people’s romantic rendezvous of choice is Paris, but to tell you the truth, there has never been a real attraction for me apart from the Eiffel Tower (being the place where Lois Lane was saved by Superman from being fried by a nuclear bomb) and perhaps some shopping for a rare Chanel trinket and taking in world-renowned art.
Otherwise, my heart has always yearned for Ireland (not particular about any city and this ambiguity might be explained further on).
Maybe it’s the fact that I was supposed to be named Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. My Dad was expecting a boy and this was before ultrasound technology became cheap – it was already available though, I mean it wasn’t that long ago, people!
Or maybe it was all that Mills & Boon fodder that featured red-headed, green-eyed heroines falling in love in the arms of some brutish, handsome millionaire. I mean I’m sure there were other hair and eye colours but still, when you’re in the 5th grade in the Philippines, things like that burn in you brain somehow especially since I started reading them so young. (Too young I would even say, and I moved on to Sidney Sheldon novels by the 6th grade. Highly not recommended and I would never allow my kids that today. Actually, I wasn’t allowed either but what can I say, I was a rebel!)
Anyway, then there was The Corrs. I mean I could sing their songs really well in the key they were recorded so of course, this is probably reinforcing in my brain that Ireland and its culture could definitely be a fit for me. Plus there’s Celtic Woman – I mean who doesn’t want to be one after hearing their angelic, lilting melodies and lively violin hop-to-it instrumentals! I so want to have curly hair, but I can’t so I’ll just happily aspire to Andrea Corr’s sweet-goth look.
“Oh, we are so young now, we are so young, so young now!”
I have to admit, one movie almost turned me off the whole thing. I mean nothing against the actors, but “P.S. I Love You” almost made going to Ireland too painful. Sorry, but at the end of my films I do not like the protagonists dying let alone dying at the beginning of the dang movie.
LEAPIN’ LEPRECHAUNS!
So, I took the leap and rented “Leap Year” a couple of days ago because I like Amy Adams, especially as it turns out, when paired with scrumdeedeeleeyumcious Matthew Goode. And I’ll tell you how much I liked it — I went ahead and bought it full price to add to my collection of chick flicks to watch when I’ve had enough of the cynical corporate world. Full price. I still can’t get over it.
And I’ve watched it 4 times in the past 2 days and will get on to my 5th viewing tonight most likely when the kids are asleep.* All while squeezing in an office job (with an almost 3-hour commute everyday) and taking care of a family. Those chores sure can get in the way!
In other words, I really, really liked it.
It’s rom-com at its best for me. Idealistic romance, opposites attract tension, beautiful girl meets handsomely rugged boy (“a beast in pain”) against the backdrop of an immensely amazing landscape. It’s just too contrived and made-up that it had to be good!
No holds barred, no nonsense, no excuses. Love conquers all, and is certainly not about the ‘stuff’ that popular media wants us to believe love is about – like a big rock on your finger and an elaborately planned and filmed proposal on facebook. Trust me, it’s not.
I have nothing against a perfectly styled apartment in the better part of town, but it does get your goat when the marriage is conveniently arranged so you can ‘qualify’ for it (albeit unofficially). I know divorce is painful and expensive, and there are practical considerations these days before entering into it.
But how sad is it that marriage is now being seen as essentially just another contract, complete with pre-nuptial agreements, rather than what it was originally meant to be — a commitment, a bond, a vow between two people who would look after each other no matter what and would build a life together, for the most part, without knowing exactly how it’s going to look like.
One. Big. Adventure.
Sure, reality still has to prevail. Like getting jobs, buying a house, raising the kids, and doing the day-to-day chores that surround the whole package.
But at the heart and soul of it all should be the two people who started on the journey naively, innocently and so in love! Shouldn’t it? Shouldn’t it?
Somebody better agree with me because it’s my birthday today!
*And since it’s my birthday today, I’ll be doing a marathon of it while I prepare my birthday dinner and let my guests suffer through the saccharine sweetness of it all. It’s only fair, since I’m low-carbing it today so that should replace the sugar lacking in my food. Plus I won’t get a headache afterwards. How grand!
