Leatherheads Review

Well I guess this is what happens when you try to do too much.

I got the impression that, with "Leatherheads", director/star George Clooney set out to make a sports film about the early days of professional football AND an homage to the witty, fast-talking screwball comedies of the 1920's. Unfortunately, Clooney ends up coming up short in both departments.

Not that "Leatherheads" is bad. It helps to have three likable actors in the lead roles. Clooney stars as "Dodge" Connelly, a player for the Duluth Bulldogs, a professional football team during a time when the game was sort of a joke. John Krasinski (The Office) plays Carter Rutherford, a star in the much more popular college football game, who also happens to be a war hero. Renee Zellwegger plays Lexie Littleton, a fast-talking reporter sent to investigate claims that Carter's exploits during WWI were not as heroic as he claims.

Clooney the director once again does a nice job of lovingly recreating a specific period in American history. He keeps the pace appropriately light and the plot moving forward. The costumes (gotta love the old football uniforms) and the music by Randy Newman, also lend major assists in making the period come to life.

Still, whenever somebody starts complimenting the costumes and the music, you have to figure a movie's lacking in other areas.

It's not the acting, exactly, but the fact that the two leads mostly appear to be on cruise control. Clooney is his usual roguish, charming self, but his fast-talking character is the same one we've seen in "O Brother Where Art Thou" and "Intolerable Cruelty." Zellwegger too seems to be channeling her past period performances in "Chicago" and "Cinderella Man", albeit with a snazzier wardrobe (damnit, I'm talking about the costumes again!)

Out of the cast, I'd say Krasinski acquitted himself the best, bringing charm and even a little dramatic depth to the role of a conflicted golden boy. (Then again, I COULD be saying all this because I'm incredibly biased toward anyone associated with "The Office.") Jonathan Pryce was solid and appropriately sleazy as an opportunistic agent and Stephen Root stole ever scene he was in as a mostly-drunk reporter.

No, the problem, as I said before was lack of focus.

I would've loved to have seen a movie about the beginnings of pro football, and what the game was like back then because we haven't really had that yet. And Clooney does deliver a few amusing football sequences and what the sport was like back then for the players, but not enough to do justice to a subject matter that should definitely be explored.

A lot of that was sacrificed in favor of the love triangle/screwball comedy portion, which also falls short. Clooney and Zellwegger have decent, but not great chemistry together and one lovely romantic scene. I kind of wish there had been more scenes with the three leads together to sort of push the love triangle, um, angle, which ends up falling flat.

Clooney and Zellwegger also have a few rapid-fire/witty exchanges that I wish would've been pushed even further and used more throughout the film. It probably didn't help that I watched "The Hudsucker Proxy" by the Coen Bros. the night before (an expertly done tribute to the screwball comedies of the 20's). Clooney's a good director, but he's not nearly THAT good yet.

In the end, Clooney made an entertaining film that, while not as good as his previous two directorial efforts ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Good Night, and Good Luck") is more fun. Next time, he should pick ONE movie and make it, instead of trying to do two at once.

Leatherheads...B-