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Director: George Clooney
Starring: George Clooney, Rene Zellweger, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Root, Keith Loneker
Is George Clooney going through some kind of middle-aged nostalgia craze? Like The Good German, Leatherheads is a semi-successful attempt to re-capture the charm of a movie-making era long past. This time out, Clooney takes a shot at old-fashioned romantic comedies with one set at the dawn of the modern age of pro football, in 1925. There is plenty of spiffy dialog that loses a little in it’s overly-quick, too polished delivery, and usually results in a smile rather than a laugh. Clooney is, well exactly as Clooney is in most of his films. He is glib and charming and always seems to have a half smile on his face. Rene Zellweger overacts, as she often does and her unnaturally thin frame is really starting to look disturbingly mismatched with her round face. Her friends and family really need to dispatch an ambulance and rush her to the nearest White Castle for a bag of burgers. The story is mediocre formula work, that seems rushed and doesn’t always make sense, but isn’t too bad. Clooney’s direction does a commendable job of creating an idealized, stereotypical 1920s ‘aw shucks’ kind of setting, and is aided by Randy Newman‘s jazzy score. However the pace here is a trifle too fast and the characters don‘t always work, leaving me with the final impression that something was missing.
George Clooney is Dodge Connelly, an aging athlete, as well as some kind of manager/investor, who seems broke at one point, but somehow sells a watch or something and suddenly seems to have enough cash to run a team in the struggling young sport of pro football. His plan for success in this venture hinges on recruiting a college star, war hero named Carter ‘Bullet” Rutherford (John Krasinski), who is represented by a cliched snake of an agent, CC Frazier (Jonathan Pryce). Swishing into the picture, as well is an all too cocky, smirking female reporter named Lexie Littleton (Rene Zellweger) who is out to investigate Carter’s war hero claim. Oh yeah, Dodge also has some kind of issue with the growing number of rules in his evolving game. Leatherheads also offers up some trying-to-be-zany football scenes, but it’s been done before and done better.
Imagine Bull Durham set in the 1920s with a less-effective story revolving around football instead of baseball, and you have the closest comparison I can make for Leatherheads. Its interesting, but not interesting enough and tries to be funny, but isn’t funny enough. In the end, this seems like a film that I should like more than I did, but I don’t so I won’t be likely to see it again and I’m already forgetting it faster than Bullet’s legs and Dodge’s dialog.
