If you have watched movies very seriously for very long, you have probably at some point wondered what it would be like if you made a film by rigging up someone's apartment with a bunch of cameras, turning them on, see what happens, and then later editing it down to documentary. A watered-down version of that is done on reality-TV shows, but that would make for a boring film if you take away all of the sensational stuff needed to make reality-TV shows watchable. But it is possible to construct a fictional film that takes the same realistic approach, but using actors, dialogue, set design, lighting, and composition of shots that goes into fictional films. The most famous example of that is Chantel Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was an obvious influence on Leap Year. Both films provide an intimate portrait of a young women by just showing what she does, day-to-day, with the camera never leaving her apartment. If the viewer pays attention, and if the director uses some intelligence, it can make for an absorbing portrayal of real life, in spite of the fact that it is actors on a film set. Leap Year is far more explicit about sex than Jeanne Dielmann..., but the film really isn't particularly erotic until the final scenes. All that nudity isn't to build her up as an object of lust, but rather to create a sense of intimacy with the character, to show what it's like to be her. She proves to be a pragmatic and unsentimental person, and probably has to be, given her life situation. You might find her life depressing, though there is a clear spirit there, a determination to do what she needs to do. However, the last part of the film becomes sensational and erotic, in an S/M way, living up to this film's reputation as an explicit sex film. If you are fascinated by film, and like to ponder what is cinematically possible, you may want to give this film a watch (as well as Jeanne Dielmann…).

Laura is a woman living in Mexico in an apartment by herself. She's a loner and works using the computer at her place. Her mother lives far away and she sometimes gets visited by her younger brother. Laura who is a yielding person doesn't want to displease others and tries to give them the impression that everything is normal in her life. When her mother asks her on the telephone what she had for dinner, she replies steak when she apparently eats a can of beans.Laura is having one night stands with different men and when she tries to initiate some form of contact other than purely sexual she gets very disappointed as her lovers do not follow. This changes when she meets Arturo, a man who is interested in rough and even paraphilic sex. They spend time together, talking, eating, watching t.v. It seems that Laura has finally founded the perfect lover and a person who can establish a relationship with. But as the story continues, Laura reveals a family history full of pain and confesses to Arturo that the 29th of February is the day when her dad passed away.Then a day before the anniversary of her father's death she tries to take advantage of Arturo's sadomasochistic preferences and asks him to brutally kill her while having sex. In other words she wants to commit assisted suicide. Laura is a deeply traumatized and lonely person. Something seriously went wrong with her life. Maybe she has been molested as a child, maybe not, but by whom nobody can tell for sure. What's missing in her life is a healthy, fulfilling relationship and some professional therapeutic help so she can stop being victimized and spying on the neighbors reaching for human touch.A film that reminds a lot of Amos Kollek's ''Sue'' (1997) about a tragic woman who is falling apart. Actress Monica del Carmen is very good and although the film takes place entirely in an apartment didn't make me feel discomfort or bored at all. Instead of Arturo who never showed up Laura's brother did. They talked, they remembered, they cried in each other's arms and the 29th of February passed welcoming March and giving Laura who smiles in front of the calendar an opportunity to put her life back together...!

Monica del Carmen is Laura Velez, a journalist living alone in an apartment in Mexico. She spends most of her time there writing her stories or cooking for herself.She also picks up strangers for one night stands much like Diane Keaton in "Looking For Mr. Goodbar" years ago. Del Carmen is short, overweight and plain looking but she does an admirable job portraying a lonely young woman searching for something or someone, we're never quite sure what she wants or needs.The sex scenes are somewhat explicit for a mainstream movie, so if you are offended by such material, stay away.This is a technically simple story mostly shot in the apartment where Laura lives. He final partner has a sadistic streak, so be forewarned of some degrading behavior which is fairly unpleasant. That being said, I would like to see what Ms. del Carmen does in the future.

Judging by the reviews here, there seems to be a lot of animosity, a lot of grief and lot of misunderstanding about this film. Leap Year, is by it's very nature, exactly that. It's a film about a desperately sad and lonely woman who, through her own sex drive, ends up making a massive jump forward in her life. Emotionally and temporally. It is a film for everyone who has felt the extremities of sexual pleasure and pain, the extremities of desperation, the extremities of loneliness and the extremities of depression.Laura is a lonely woman with a job as a writer. She spends her time alone doing journalism and fantasising about personal relationships. Compulsively lying to her family to show herself as more interesting than she thinks she is. Needing positive emotional intensity. She lives emotionally vicariously off the young couple opposite her flat - she masturbates while watching them doing everyday tasks, feeding off the closeness they have but that she has never experienced. Closeness and understanding turn her on, they fuel her. She goes out most evenings and pulls random men back to her flat, sleeping with them but gaining nothing. They all leave in the morning with barely a word. She has no idea how to snare men any other way than through sex. To her, sex is the portal to emotional fulfillment. Here is her main failing.She ends up meeting Arturo who has quite advanced sexual tastes. He likes spanking, he likes asphyxiation, he likes knife play and urolagnia. Because she is desperate to be close to him and because he shows a constant interest in her, she goes along with everything. And here is an important point. She does not go along with him because she is forced to but because she finds she enjoys it. There is no point in the film where she is forced to do anything beyond her will. Every time he buzzes her flat she knows what's coming. She runs to the window, throws the keys out, undresses and waits. The intensity, the vibe between them, the emotional extremity turns her on so much and gives her the emotional closeness she always fantasised about that she wants more. When Arturo urinates on her, and asks her afterwards what it was like, she smiles and says "it was warm". It felt good to her because it was personal, because it was private, taboo, shunned by many, but something explicit to them (a point clearly understood by the BBFC who did not cut this scene even though they are normally outspoken again urinating on women in pornography).This brings me to the next point - this is not porn. Laura is a plain girl. She is not a porn actress or model. She is plump, she is normal, she is a lonely girl going through depressive motions desperately looking for understanding. This film is not meant to titillate, which is the point of pornography. It is not meant for the viewer. It is about Laura. It is her film. It is a snapshot of her existence. Nothing is glossy or embellished. The flat, her, her sex life, her job. Everything is matte, plain and wanting.The film's pièce de résistance is the final scene. Laura has been marking days off her calendar to her decided day of suicide, 29th February, the same day her father died. Arturo asks her "what kind of person dies on February 29th?" to which she answers "those that have to". She is convinced she cannot - will not - live beyond this day. She marks it in a big red block on her calendar. A stop, an end point, unseeable beyond. She agrees with Arturo on the ultimate close sexual high - she will be killed by him during sex that night when she outlines to him in a highly erotic scene exactly what she wants him to do to her while she masturbates him. When the evening comes and her brother invades her space because he has broken up with his boyfriend, she wakes up the next day alive and in the same white dress as the night before. She looks at the calendar, realising February has ended, and turns over to March. A new month. A month she thought she'd never see. Each day blank and for her to fill with what she chooses. She is in control once again - maybe more than ever.If you've ever been depressed, felt extreme loneliness or understand the highs and lows of sexual experimentation and intensity, this is a film for you. It ticks so many boxes so beautifully..... but for everyone else it will likely just seem exploitative. It is far more than that indeed: a very beautiful, dark and emotive piece of film-making.