Metacritic reviews

Never to be confused for the rom-com starring Amy Adams - though that would be the mother of all video-store mix-ups - Leap Year lets actions speak louder than words, and the actions here are shockingly explicit.

A gripping, mysterious use of no-budget cinema at its finest, and an intimate character study with surprising emotional power.

Leap Year is a story of survival, and its poised aesthetic is remarkably keyed to its main character's shell-like behavior.

Don't get the wrong idea -- to Rowe's credit, this isn't just a movie about sex. It's a compassionate study of human loneliness. Whatever you do, don't confuse this with the Hollywood rom-com of the same name.

There are trifling signs of freshmanship, but also a steady observant eye, and in the end Leap Year bears heartbreaking witness to hopeless depression, isolation, and the failure of sex as few movies ever have.

A tough psychological drama, it may stretch some audience sensibilities.

For those who can't handle graphic scenes of golden showers and cigarettes ground into bare breasts, Leap Year will feel more like a blind leap into the void of art-house cinema du extreme, South of the Border division, than a portrait of urban ennui.

Aussie migrant Rowe has an acute eye for the emotional badlands travelled by Lopez's struggling journo. A tough but humane and affecting watch.

A far cry from 2010's shallow rom-com of the same name, this Leap Year is a haunting portrait of loneliness in its starkest state.

Making sadomasochism appear less erotic than stamp collecting, Leap Year is a slow flare of emotional agony.