Leatherheads

April 4, 2008

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 114 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

George Clooney directed this comedy about 1920s football. It’s also a homage to 1930s screwball comedy, with George Clooney and Renee Zellweger doing a Cary Grant/Katherine Hepburn imitation.

Clooney plays Dodge, a professional in the not-very-respected game of football, who’s getting a little too old for this stuff. John Krasinski (From the TV show THE OFFICE) plays a young World War I hero who, now just finishing college football, is convinced to Go Pro. Meanwhile, football is about to be transformed out of cow pastures and into the commercial venture we know today.

Renee Zellweger (who seems to be the Go To Girl when it comes to doing a 1920s movie) is a reporter ostensibly doing a puff piece on the team but actually trying to track down a rumor that the hero’s World War I experiences are much exaggerated.

What develops is sort of a love triangle.

This is a good-natured comedy that is funny, but unfortunately runs out of steam about 3/4ths of the way through it. Right before The Big Game finale, which is a bad sign in a sports movie. One problem is that Clooney seems to like all these characters so much that he can’t really bring himself to make anyone The Bad Guy.

How forgiving you are of the movie’s faults probably depends on how interesting 1920s proto-football is to you, and whether or not you know what 1930s screwball comedy is.

But Clooney has great comic timing, and he’s not afraid to poke fun at himself.

Posted by Mack Guffin | Filed Under 3 Stars, Comedy, George Clooney, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce, Renee Zellweger, Theatrical