Leopold is a man ahead of his time.
Kate McKay is a woman out of step with hers.
Like proverbial opposites, Kate and Leopold seem meant for one another if only they could find the time to get together.
Though they both live in New York, that's trickier than it seems.
Leopold (Hugh Jackman) is a 19th century duke. Kate (Meg Ryan) is a 21st century advertising executive.
How they get to meet is just one of the delightful plot contrivances of the utterly charming romantic comedy Kate & Leopold.
Kate's former boyfriend Stuart (Liev Schreiber) discovers a time portal that allows him to travel to 1876. Stuart's intention is to surreptitiously take photos of his first visit to validate his discovery.
Leopold notices the stranger, pursues him and slips through the portal with him into 2001.
It's a fish-out-of-water story that has been explored many times, either by sending people into the past or bringing them into the future.
What makes Kate & Leopold seem surprisingly fresh are the winning characters.
Leopold is a suave, cultured gentleman pining for love. Kate is a driven, career-obsessed woman who's given up on love.
Stuart is wonderfully cunning, ambitious and manipulative, but is quickly rendered helpless when he crashes down an elevator chute and is rushed to hospital.
That leaves the only person who knows Leopold's situation unable to help him.
The more Stuart babbles on about the time portal, the more drugs the hospital staff administer thinking he is delusional as a result of his fall.
Kate has no idea who the quirky stranger in Stuart's apartment is and nor does she care until he prepares her a rooftop supper, rescues her from a mugger and takes her on a romantic afternoon outing.
Leopold seems too chivalrous to be true or at least true to this century. Leopold even coaches Kate's hyper brother Charlie (Breckin Meyer) on how to woo the current girl of his dreams.
The attraction that blossoms between Kate and Leopold is as old as romantic comedies themselves.
They start out at odds but that somehow makes them more desirable to each other.
It's no surprise Ryan is so adept at finding all the right beats.
This is familiar territory for her but she is not simply recycling her characters from Sleepless in Seattle or When Harry Met Sally.
Jackman continues to prove he's as much at home with comedy as he is with drama or action.
His Leopold is a bit pompous and self satisfied, but he has a heart that needs as much love as it contains.
James Mangold directs with confidence never apologizing for the light, breezy feel he gives the movie making Kate & Leopold supremely and sublimely romantic. It's the cinema version of a sprig of mistletoe.
(This film is rated PG)
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