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Kate & LeopoldRating:
Release Date: December, 2002 Retail Price: $14.99 OUR Price: $11.99 You SAVE: $3.00! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Kate & Leopold Reviews
" . . . maybe your hips'll shrink and he'll come to your door."
Or maybe not.
At first, the romantic comedy Kate & Leopold seems like an odd film for James Mangold to direct in between the teenager-in-an-asylum movie Girl, Interrupted and the slasher-horror film Identity. Mangold's other movies (like Cop Land) are more noirish than cute, too.
But Kate & Leopold does have one thing in common with Girl, Interrupted and Identity - - one of the main characters is in a mental institution. Stuart, an inventor and Kate's old boyfriend, is locked up when he says he's discovered a crack in time that permits travel to 1876. Stuart also says the man staying in his apartment is an English duke who came back with him from 1876. Of course Kate and Leopold fall in love.
It's too bad Leopold couldn't have found a way to stay with Kate in the twenty-first century. Kate and Leopold both make a physical leap (off the Brooklyn Bridge, which is just over the time portal Stuart discovered), but Leopold jumps back to a familiar world. Kate gives up her family and her career. Leopold is also an inventor and an educated aristocrat and would have more opportunities in Kate's time than Kate would as a woman in his. ("Research is a fine profession for a woman. Suitable to the feminine mind.")
Many reviewers of this movie have noticed that Kate chooses the traditional role, picking a man over a life. But Leopold is more afraid of the new than Kate, and by going back to 1876 Leopold takes the easy way out. Just like Kate, Leopold's choice limits his possibilities (but not to the same extent as Kate's).
Leopold has already invented the elevator in his own time, inspired by the "erections" (I hope Mangold is ashamed of the childish jokes in the first scene) being built in 1876. During his time in the twenty-first century he even invents an improved toaster. For Leopold to go back and miss out on what the new age has to offer is just as cowardly as Kate trying to be the heroine in one of her assistant's romance novels instead of living in the real world.
We don't see much of 1876 society except for a grand ball at Leopold's uncle's mansion, which is good, because the poverty and racism in the time Leopold came from might spoil our fantasy. When a black female New York cop tells Leopold to pick up dog poop, his reaction is respectful, admirable, and completely unbelievable. Leopold accepts the social differences between his time and ours too easily.
The DVD has the original theatrical release and the director's cut. The director's cut makes a few of the time-travel twists more understandable. The director's cut tells us that Leopold is Stuart's ancestor, which is why Leopold has to get back to 1876, otherwise Stuart won't be born. That also makes Stuart, who has just broken up with Kate, someone who (assuming Kate and Leopold live happily ever after) has been sleeping with his great-great-something grandmother. The producers might have thought that was a little too Sophoclean for the theatrical release.
If you want to see a dumb romantic comedy that doesn't leave a taste in your mouth like Farmer's Bounty (the "raw suet" margarine Leopold winds up being TV spokesman for), check out Wimbledon or One Fine Day.
Charming, But Don't Analyze It
There are many errors with this film. The time travel concept is not very well explained. One reviewer pointed out the La Boheme error, there are several others (including the whole elevator bit). But why nit-pick this movie, which is touching and cute? It is a thoroughly enjoyable romantic comedy that touches the heart without going for the tears. I do agree with those about Meg Ryan being past the cute ingenue stage, but I am glad they didn't cast some young, sexy bombshell for what was supposed to be a woman who has already established herself in an executive role. Maybe Kate Hudson was busy.
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