Leatherheads

Starring: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Stephen Root, Jonathan Pryce, Mike O'Malley
Directed by: George Clooney
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: An aging football player (George Clooney) convinces the biggest college star (John Krasinski) in the United States to join the fledgling professional football league in an attempt to keep the league alive.

Review:

Tim: George Clooney did a fantastic job directing Good Night and Good Luck., so I was intrigued to see his follow-up directorial effort. He went the opposite way, choosing a lighthearted comedy about the early days of professional football, rather than the very serious and somber Good Night and Good Luck.. Unfortunately, while he achieved much of what he set out to do, the movie as itself is too lightweight and not nearly good enough.

I really appreciate Clooney setting out to make a throwback movie to the screwball comedies of yesteryear. I like screwball comedies and I appreciated this film paying homage to them. However, this movie just wasn't all that funny. Yes, I smirked on occasion and once or twice might have laughed, but as a whole film, it's not nearly funny or memorable enough. The script needed some work.

This is most obvious with the characters- they all feel almost like fully fleshed out people, but not quite. They all fall short. George Clooney is the aging, suave, determined footballer. Renee Zellweger is the tough-as-nails newspaper woman, and John Krasinski is the do-good college star with a mysterious past. Yes, these characterizations pay tribute to movies of the past, but they aren't necessary good things. I wanted more real characters- characters I could care about and root for. You simply will not find that in Leatherheads. As far as acting, Clooney and Zellweger certainly put in a lot of energy into their roles. They have good chemistry, even when their characters are paper thin. I liked both their performances, but I wish they had more to work with. I'm a big Krasinski fan because of his work on "The Office", but I thought his performance here was only okay. He felt very one-dimensional and wasn't able to elevate his character like Clooney or Zellweger could do. Still, seeing these three on screen was pretty fun.

I also liked that this movie portrayed the early days of professional football in America. It was fun to see how far the sport has come. When you see the rinkydink operation portrayed in the movie and compare it with the global, billion dollar corporation the NFL is today, it's remarkable to see how far it's come. The differences are portrayed in a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek way. I thought it could have been handled a bit better, but overall, it was fine.

If you look at Leatherheads purely as an attempt to emulate and pay homage to screwball comedies of the past, you could argue that Clooney pulled off exactly what he intended. I give him credit for that. Unfortunately, what he intended ends up being a somewhat dull, unmemorable movie. It's not especially funny, it's averagely entertaining. I wanted to love this movie, but I couldn't muster up much more than a shrug and a grunt.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Good Night and Good Luck., Down With Love