Kate & Leopold

Kate & Leopold is a successful romantic comedy, but you had better not examine the story's logic too closely - especially not the time-travel theory side of it.

Leopold is an impoverished but sought-after English duke on the hunt for a rich American wife in New York in 1876 - or rather, it is his family's express wish that he marry into money. Leopold would rather marry for love, but he has not found it yet. Leopold has been ordered to become engaged on the very evening his uncle is throwing a big party, but before it comes to that, he pursues a mysterious stranger, Stuart, and is whirled forward in time, to our own time, to be precise.

The duke finds it hard to believe Stuart's story that he has found an opening in time and that Leopold will be able to return to his own era in exactly one week. Stuart does not want to expose his guest to culture shock, but things go no better when Leopold is left to his own devices - and to his pretty upstairs neighbour Kate, Stuart's ex, and her friendly brother Charlie.

Kate is a successful career woman, but what she wants most of all is not a step up the career ladder but a man. And it is very hard to resist the gallant Leopold after he has chased a purse-snatcher through Central Park on horseback. The only problem is that Leopold belongs to another age. In a film where time travel is accepted without batting an eyelid, this problem is of course not too big to be solved.

Meg Ryan plays the same role she usually plays, while Hugh Jackman is priceless as the involuntary time traveller. He is just charming enough for Kate's choice to be understandable. Really it is a somewhat reactionary story, in which a liberated woman is willing to give up independence and equality in favour of an oppressive pattern of gender roles, but that is probably something you should not think about too closely either.