 | |
List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Miramax
Salesrank: 1952
Released: June 11, 2002 |
| Our Price: $4.58 |
| Used Price: $3.99 |
|
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
|
Editorial Review:
Meg Ryan (YOU'VE GOT MAIL) and Hugh Jackman (X-MEN) are paired as star-crossed lovers who discover that passion and chivalry never go out of style! When a rip in time brings together a charming 19th century bachelor and a thoroughly 21st century woman, the potential for an old-fashioned modern romance ignites! Also starring Breckin Meyer (ROAD TRIP) and Liev Schreiber (SCREAM 3).
Description of Kate & Leopold:
Hokey but heartfelt, Kate & Leopold revitalizes an old idea, and amiable casting makes this romantic fantasy work almost in spite of itself. Knowing that he'd be risking comparison to Time After Time and Somewhere in Time if he delved too deeply into time travel, director James Mangold (Girl, Interrupted) briefly introduces an elusive "time portal," then wisely skirts the issue altogether. Instead, he focuses on kismet, etiquette, and fading traditions of chivalry as bachelor Duke Leopold of Albany (Hugh Jackman) is accidentally swept from 1876 to present-day 2001. Adjusting to the shock of his temporal displacement, he falls in love with Manhattan executive Kate (Meg Ryan), whose ex-boyfriend (Liev Schreiber) is Leopold's great-great-grandson. But Leo can't stay in the future, and this breezy comedy proves yet again that time is no barrier when true love is involved. Hardly original, but Ryan's doing what she does best, making Kate & Leopold a bona-fide crowd pleaser--past, present, and future. --Jeff Shannon
Kate & Leopold Reviews:
Tales... 
2009-08-23 - In a place everything is possible New York City is, a higher-caste engineer from the past found himself in modern NY thanks to technical endeavours of his future descendant, an ex-boyfriend and neighbour of a modern Manhattan advertising chief-executive.
Sexy funny sci-fi film is rather of what modern males lost upon the time than of what modern females suppose parting with.
Simply Wonderful 
2009-07-15 - This is one of my all time favorite movies. It's just a very simple, funny, and terribly romantic movie. Perfect to watch curled up in bed on a cold and snowy night.
KATE & LEOPOLD
2009-05-04 - I first saw this movie on HBO some years ago. It's always been a favorite but I never had the opportunity to buy it. After becoming a fan of ALL Hugh Jackman movies; I was lucky to find this one. Brand new at a great price....
I loved it!
2009-03-31 - Kate and Leopold was such a great movie! I think by showing the way the world was and then in present time you see where we all have made our mistakes...men were respectful of a lady and spoke accordingly ,he taught the men of today how to win our hearts and that love is the most precious gift of all...Hugh Jackman and Meg ryan were magic together..Fabulous buy it now!!
"You want to vex my sister!" 
2009-03-15 - Lest you hold that old-fashioned romance is dead and gone, here comes a quality movie to flick your earlobe reprovingly and to gainsay that belief. 2001's KATE & LEOPOLD stars Hugh Jackman at his elegant, charming best and Meg Ryan, appealing as ever and very much in her wheelhouse. And while not quite as classic as Meg's SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE or WHEN HARRY MET SALLY... this torn-out-of-time, fish-out-of-water romantic comedy sparkles with humor, appealing characters, and, yup, romance.
Hugh Jackman plays the robust fictional Leopold, third duke of Albany (as opposed to the sickly real-life Leopold, duke of Albany). In Jackman's hands Leopold isn't some fancy pants twit but rather a suave, well-mannered and stand-up guy. It's April 28, 1876 and Leopold has brought his destitute but noble pedigree to New York, his uncle insisting that he find some rich American heiress to marry. We learn early on that Leo is not only an engineering inventor of sorts but that he's also discontented with his royal lot in life.
Meanwhile, in modern-day New York, Kate (Meg Ryan) on the surface is a successful career woman, doing big things in market research. But her personal life is a mess, Kate having just a month ago broken up with her longtime boyfriend Stuart (Liev Schreiber), a scientific louse obsessed solely with time portals. And who happens to be the great-great grandson of Leopold the third duke of Albany. Past and present get Kevin Baconed when Stuart discovers and uses a time portal to the past, just off the Brooklyn Bridge, and returns with an ancestral passenger accidentally in tow.
Kate and Leopold meet, and it's not pretty, what with the jaded, heartbroken Kate finding Leo in her ex-boyfriend's crib. Then there's how Leo is dressed like Sergeant Pepper. But this is Meg Ryan, whose mutant power is to embody the wistful, starry-eyed heroine in these things, so slowly Leo begins to have an effect. To ratchet the suspense, elevators all over the city begin to malfunction, this being a side effect of Leopold not being in his own time. It makes sense once you realize that in his rightful era, Leopold - who, remember, is an engineer - would go on to invent the lift. And if Leo were not to return to his rightful era, well, cue in the scary repercussions...
Hugh Jackman owns this movie even more so than Meg Ryan. Those who've seen him take on the grim superhero part (snikt!) in the X-Men films may be surprised that Hugh can also play a convincing cultured Englishman. He demonstrates this saving grace, a self-deprecating quality, which keeps him from venturing into snobbyland. So you end up liking him even as he imparts lessons in gentlemanly refinement and etiquette to various contemporary New Yorkers. Hugh's romancing of Meg is fun to watch and the most key element in the film, but, let's face it, the love story is a foregone conclusion. So, really, it's Hugh's reactions to his shocking new environs which particularly caught my interest. Would that we all were as graceful under similarly unfamiliar straits (although, yeah, his royal dudeness does lose it a bit when confounded by the enigmatic toaster).
It's fun watching Leopold interacting with New York's fast-lane living denizens. It's a given that the ladies would be bowled over by his charm and couth and accent. But I was surprised at how well Jackman works with Breckin Meyer, who plays Kate's aimless younger brother. It isn't too long before Breckin's character is looking up to Leo and taking his advice in behavior and in how to woo a chick. Breckin also just gave me a mantra for dealing with stubborn bottles of certain condiments: "You shake and shake the ketchup bottle; none will come, and then a lot'll."
Casting aside the trappings of time travel, KATE & LEOPOLD is a throwback, wafting in that whiff of old-fashioned romance. It's just as well that the time portal angle isn't dwelled on for much of the movie (other than in the running Stuart sub-plot), as it probably would've just muddied up the waters. As it is, we get to take in wonderful performances by Meg Ryan, being her sweet self, and Hugh Jackman, terrific as a nobleman out of his time but not out of his element. Hugh's Leopold reminds us that, even in the face of swines and cynicism, there's yet a place for good manners. And that also, back in the day, operas weren't just for sissies.
