'Leatherheads' Movie Review

Actor/director/producer/humanitarian/Oscar-winner/all-around Hollywood good-guy George Clooney brings the bygone days of screwball comedies back to life on the big screen with Leatherheads, co-starring Renee Zellweger and Jim from The Office (aka John Krasinski). Clooney’s been knocking out performances - and stacking up awards - in serious films recently, but with Leatherheads he’s back in the O Brother, Where Art Thou? groove.

While most of the marketing (and the film’s poster) plays up the football action, sports nuts need to be aware Leatherheads isn’t a football film in the traditional sense. Instead, Leatherheads is a romantic comedy aimed at adults with a taste for slapstick who’ll forgive the fact football takes a backseat to a spunky love story fueled by snappy, rapid-fire dialogue.

The Story

Leatherheads takes a look way, way back in time to when professional football was taking its very first baby steps toward being an organized sports league. In the early days, players played the sport for the love of the game, a couple of bucks, and the thrill of being part of a team. The game itself more closely resembled rugby than anything else, with passing used only sporadically. Trick plays, cheating (a certain New England Patriots coach would have fit right in) and fistfights were the order of the day. Finding sponsors and paying for roadtrips was tough work for the fledgling league in the 1920s, and teams folded with little or no warning.

At the center of the Leatherheads story is Dodge Connolly (Clooney). One of the sport’s most recognizable players/advocates, Dodge is a quick-witted, middle-aged player who calls the plays, captain’s the team, and even ghost-writes the sports column for the local newspaper reporter who spends most of his days three sheets to the wind. Dodge loses the battle to keep his struggling Bulldogs team afloat but, ever the smooth-talker, he refuses to stay down for the count.

Dodge figures out that the way to pull in the crowds, and thus guarantee his team’s financial success, is to lure college football star/war hero Carter ‘The Bullet’ Rutherford (Krasinski) into signing with his team and turning pro. The Bullet’s presence on the field’s enough to fill stands and save the Bulldogs from extinction. But what Dodge doesn’t count on is the persistence of Lexie Littleton (Zellweger), a perky, pouty-faced reporter who’s easily his match in the brains department. Lexie’s editor believes there’s something fishy about the story surrounding Carter Rutherford’s act of heroism in the war and if Lexie can get the real scoop, she’ll get a huge promotion at the paper. With nothing to lose and two handsome studly football players vying for her affection, Lexie sets out to uncover the truth about The Bullet’s war record.

The Cast

It’s necessary to like, or at least accept, all three leading actors – Zellweger, Krasinski, and Clooney – in their roles or else the film won’t work. Zellweger’s got the right look and attitude for the part of a wise-cracking newspaper reporter who can charm the pants off of any man without skipping a beat. And Clooney proved he’s a smart director by casting himself in the role of an athlete at the end of his career who doesn’t like the insertion of rules into the sport he loves. The film sizzles along when Clooney and Zellweger are having a go at each, firing off lines of clever dialogue at a pace that’s dizzying.

The Office standout John Krasinski fares much better in this than he did in the abysmal License to Wed, a stupefyingly silly romantic comedy with Mandy Moore and Robin Williams. It’s nice to see License to Wed was just a misstep and not a true indication of what Krasinski can do with a film role. In Leatherheads, Krasinski has to compete with Clooney for Zellweger’s attention, and because he’s just as charming and just as likable on the screen as Clooney, it’s totally believable. Krasinski’s a perfect fit as the All-American guy caught up in something bigger than himself.

The Bottom Line

Clooney’s realistically recreated the look of the 1920s with costumes, sets, and sports action befitting the era. I’d always assumed women’s clothing from that decade would have been drab and lifeless, but Zellweger’s costumes (which apparently do represent the dress of the day) are simply gorgeous. Lexie’s bold and interesting color combinations really liven up the picture, and are striking in comparison with the more muted colors of the men’s attire. It’s also interesting to see the evolution of the football uniform from those early days of pro football to today. The players from the ‘20s make today’s millionaire athletes look like total wimps with their shoulder pads and practically indestructible helmets. I’d like to see some of our spoiled pro players take a few hits wearing leather helmets without facemasks and barely any padding…

The real high points of the movie are the verbal sparring matches between Clooney and Zellweger, and Clooney, Zellweger & Krasinski. I’d liken them to watching a championship tennis match at Wimbledon’s center court. The ball, or in this case the dialogue, is flying back and forth so fast you almost get a headache trying to keep up. The snappy quips and razor-sharp putdowns go by so quickly it makes you want to hit the rewind button which, of course, you can’t actually do until the film’s released on DVD.

Leatherheads may not be right up there with the screwball comedies Clooney says he “homaged the hell out of” - most notably films by Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges - but in tone and style, it’s the closest Hollywood will likely ever come to recapturing the spirit, and fun, of those classic films.

GRADE: B

Leatherheads was directed by George Clooney and is rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Theatrical Release Date: April 4, 2008