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| Kate and Leopold |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 122 |
| Public Rating: 6.36 (22 votes) |
Director: James Mangold |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy |
Year: 2001 |
| Writer(s): Steven Rogers |
| Reviewed by: Oktay Ege Kozak |
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“Kate and Leopold” is a jumble of comedic and dramatic set of events that is being disguised into a facade of a type of romantic comedy. It involves time travel, Victorian drama, media criticism, self-discovery and it ultimately becomes a somewhat complicated character ensemble piece. It resorts to this style of narration so much that when the so-marketed inescapable love story between the main characters actually does start to rear its head, we are more that halfway through the movie’s running time. These scenes all seem to be somewhat related to the arcs of its characters but they tend to go on long enough to turn from being “motives” into “statements”. For example, there is a scene near the end of the movie where the integrity of mass marketing is questioned. There is another scene where Stuart, the scientist who discovers the time portal, gives a long monologue about the beauty of the space-time continuum. Near the middle of the film, we are treated to the details of Kate’s brother’s love life so intimately that it somewhat seems to become a sort of a break from the movie’s main plot. As I have said, all these scenes are required for the narrative road the characters must ensue, but they also become individual scenes, belonging to individual genres. This mixture of scenes may create a certain sense of irregularity that would have disillusioned me but because they are all handled very skillfully with a sense of grace and a skeptical intrusion of irony that they kept me interested all the way through. The acting is solid, the characters are strangely three-dimensional (which is a rare feat for romantic comedies) and the movie comes together and forms itself into an all-together entertaining comedy with a heart lodged into most of the right places. Sure, I was usually reminded myself of the unfitting scenes (probably because of the movie’s marketing which showed it as a more-than-typical romantic comedy) such as I have mentioned above, but I so rarely remember being bored of them.
Directing: Even though James Mangold looks like a skillful and versatile dramatic director, he seems to enjoy directing multiple character pieces that hold together to form themselves into a form of self-occupying line of life-like events. They seem to be getting out of our control. In “Copland”, he gave us police corruption in many sup-plots and in “Girl, Interrupted”, we were told the story of an entire mental institution that only seems to be focused on one patient, but was built upon many. I definitely do not judge the fact that he is skillful and I acknowledge the fact that he is versatile. After all, “Copland” was a thriller, “Girl, Interrupted” was drama and “Kate and Leopold” is a comedy. But even though they belong in different genres, their style is incorporated and somewhat redeeming. “Kate and Leopold” is not that much better that his previous two films, but it definitely marks his best work.
Acting/Characters: The Cute and insatiable Meg Ryan yet again delivers a very likeable and understandable performance that reminds us once again why many people fall in love with her so quickly even though her character is supposed to be a non-emotional and skeptical person (But I won’t hold that against her due to her being... well, Meg Ryan!!). Hugh Jackman from the “Wolverine” fame shows us that he has been paying attention to his speech classes in every single frame of this movie and beautifully delivers his fish-out-of-water 19.century gentleman character with a sheer sense of believability. As a character says in the movie: “He constantly stays in character”. Also, Liev Schreiber and his unusual laugh come back once again with great progression and Breckin Meyer who plays Kate’s brother transcribes himself into such an interesting comedic character that I wondered why they don’t put him in more movies.
The Movie: Even though there are a many number of implausibilites in its ending and even though the main love plot progresses a bit too rapidly for us to truly believe in the never ending love that encompasses its main characters, “Kate and Leopold” delivers a very entertaining two hours that may have been formed from plot points and scenes that usually don’t belong together, but are all interesting and overall amusing. That doesn’t mean that all romantic comedies should follow in the footsteps of its unusual style, but it’s nice to have a change of pace in singular genres once in a while.
P.S: There is a scene near the beginning of the movie where Meg Ryan has a discussion with a film director (Played by James Mangold) after a test screening and she says the line “I’m not a protagonist in a major motion picture”. I usually hate it when lines like “This is not a movie” are uttered in movies, but I was rolling all over myself when I have heard that one. Nice dialogue job, people. (Note: This scene only appears in the director’s cut version)
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