Kate & Leopold

File:Kate & Leopold.jpg

Kate & Leopold

Kate & Leopold is a 2001 romantic comedy motion picture that tells a story of a Duke who time travels from 1876 to the present and falls in love with a career woman in New York.

An interesting question that comes out of the film is "Would you jump off of the Brooklyn Bridge for love?"

The film is directed by James Mangold and stars Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman and Liev Schreiber. The DVD edition contains two versions of the film: one, the original theatrical release, runs for 118 minutes while the director's cut version runs for 122. One scene in the director's cut shows Ryan's character in a test screening for a new movie and also features a cameo by Mangold.

Award and Nominations

• In 2001 the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song.
• In 2002 the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song.
• Hugh Jackman was nominated in 2001 for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

Plot details

In 1876, Leopold Alexis Elijah Walker Gareth Thomas Mountbatten, Duke of Albany and inventor of the elevator, is a stifled man and dreamer, like his contemporaries Edison and Westinghouse. Strict Uncle Millard has no patience for Leopold's delusions of grandeur and disrespect for the monarchy, chastising him and telling him he must marry a rich American, as the Mountbatten family finances are depleted. On his "thirtieth birthday he had become a blemish to the family name," thought his uncle.

In the meantime, the puzzled Duke finds Stuart Besser, an amateur physicist and descendant of Leopold, perusing through his schematic diagrams and taking photographs of them. He had seen him only earlier while listening to Roebling's speech about the Brooklyn Bridge. Leopold follows Stuart and tries to save him from what he thinks is a suicide, falling after him into the portal that brought the man there in the first place.

Leopold awakens in 21st century New York. (Consequently, all elevators malfunction.) He is at first confused and, thinking that he has been kidnapped, he immediately takes a strident and defensive stance against Stuart. Stuart describes to him that he has created formulae to forecast portals in the temporal universe and that he must stay inside his apartment until the portal opens again a week later; he is "held in the time-after." As Stuart takes his dog out, he is injured by falling into the elevator shaft, and is eventually institutionalized for speaking about his scientific discovery.

Leopold is intrigued by the cynical and ambitious Kate McKay, Stuart's ex-girlfriend, who comes to the apartment for her Palm Pilot pointer. He observes that she is a "career woman" and states that he once dated a librarian from Sussex. Kate rudely dismisses him and sends him out into to the city, demanding that he take Stuart's dog for a walk. Leopold is overwhelmed to see Roebling's bridge still standing. Back at the apartment, he befriends Charlie, Kate's brother and an unemployed actor, who believes him to be an actor as well, steadfast to his character.

The pressured Kate, who has been diligently working toward a promotion, enlists Leopold into a commercial for her job. He then ruins her dinner date with her boss. However, Leopold's eloquent apology brings them together. The two become romantically involved, as they dine and tour New York.

Leopold cannot see how she would have him endorse a flawed item without qualms, and declares that "when someone is involved in something entirely without merit, one withdraws." Similar to his uncle, Kate says that sometimes one has to do things they don't want to. He chides her about integrity. She retorts, "I don't have time for pious speeches by men who think they are from the 19th century and have not worked a day in their life."

When Kate receives the desired promotion, she must choose between the current time and job or the 19th century with Leopold, as Stuart, who has escaped from the mental hospital with some help, and Charlie arrive in time to the banquet to show Kate pictures of her in 1876. Stuart says that he had thought he disrupted the spacetime continuum, but actually "the whole thing is a beautiful 4-D pretzel of kismetic inevitability."

Tagline: If they lived in the same century they'd be perfect for each other.

Leopold's character

Leopold is a Duke, but he has "never much felt like one." He is sophisticated, believing a meal to be "the result of reflection and study," with menus prepared in advance and entire courses served. Leopold has even seen the basement of the Louvre. He was trained in the art of weaponry by the Palace Guard, and taught to ride at the King's Academy. "Life is not solely comprised of tasks, but tastes," says Leopold. He is a man of honor and takes pride in his creations. Highly intelligent, the scientist improves modern conveniences he encounters.

Trivia and errors

Leopold has the same name and title as Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, the youngest son of Queen Victoria. In April 1876, at the time of the beginning of the film, Prince Leopold was a 23-year-old student at Christ Church, Oxford. Although Mountbatten — the family name of the fictional Leopold — is the surname of a cadet branch of the British Royal Family, the name "Mountbatten" was not adopted until 1917, due to anti-German sentiment in Great Britain during World War I. (The original form of the name was Battenberg.)

In April 1876, at the beginning of the film, Leopold is listening to a speech by Roebling. (In reality, Roebling died in 1869.)

Leopold lists Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, among others, who were not famous in 1876. For instance, it was not until 1877 that Edison invented the phonograph which earned him his fame.

There is a scene where Leopold, Charlie and Hector are singing "I Am the Very Model of a Model Major-General", from the Gilbert and Sullivan opera The Pirates of Penzance, which had its United States' première in New York on December 31 1879, whereas Leopold claimed that he had attended the première of "The Pirates of Penzance" the previous month (in March 1876). Leopold also got the story of the opera wrong. A similar scene involving a discussion of La Bohème would likewise be impossible, as Giacomo Puccini's version of the opera debuted in 1896 and Ruggiero Leoncavallo's in 1897 (there is a chance that Leopold might have seen a television production of La Bohème. Leopold never said that he saw the opera 'live' and we know that he watched television on Stuart's television set).

 Stuart was desperate to make sure that Leopold returned to his own time not out of concern for the invention of elevators but becuase Leopold was his grandfather several generations removed.  This was demephisised in the theatrical release since his ex-grilfreind Kate proves to be his remote grandmother.

External links

• Kate & Leopold at IMDb
• Kate & Leopold at currentfilm.com DVD reviews