At times while watching the film Leatherheads I got the impression that maybe it was stretching itself too thinly and in to many directions all at once. The film is part sports film, part romance and part screwball comedy. The film does a modest job at balancing the three but it also lags in gaps. Leatherheads defiantly is ambitious, which I can’t flaw, but it doesn’t really succeed at achieving its goals either.
The film tells the tale of a washed up pro football player and coach in the early days of football, Dodge Connelly (George Clooney). Dodge’s team is in danger of going under for good, as no one has much interest in professional football in the 1920’s. While Dodge is struggling a young war hero, John Krasinski, is having huge success as an all star college player. Seeing his success Dodge thinks if he can get this hot shot college kid on his team then he might have a chance of keeping the team together. An obstacle in his way is a quick witted report played by Renee Zellweger who is sent to uncover dirt on the young football stud. Soon Clooney’s character is put in direct competition with Zellweger as they both want different things from the collage star.
Naturally as romantic comedies go the two rivals, Clooney and Zelwiger, fall for each other and love blossoms. As far of this film goes, that is maybe the best part of it. When these two stars are together they have some real chemistry with one another. The two exchange lines with one another with reel charm and ease. The one liners they exchange with one another really do go back to the days of 1930’s screwball comedies. Now they are no Carey Grant or Katharine Hepburn, but for today’s standards they might as well be. Clooney is really working his charm to the extreme hear and Zellweger is really lively. Watching the two stars verbally spare with each other was really very enjoyable. The scenes where they just exchange comic dialogue with one another is the best part of the film.
As for as the football aspects go I felt the game scenes were only ok but provided little laughs. If anything the football aspect seemed to hurt lots of the films strength. In too many scenes the film gets bogged down in the details of how pro football came to be. It seemed that it was almost from another movie and that the comedy was harm because of it. Long stretches of the films subplot about the formation of the NFL slow down the comic magic that was shown early in the film. There were too many dull scenes about pro footballs formation and far too little of Clooney and Zellweger.
As far as the film goes it is a fairly competent one, and Clooney proved to me again how talented he is as a director. His direction is solid and he really does know what he is doing. Its not on the same level of his last film, the masterful Good Night and Good Luck, but still this film shows off Clooney’s skills. The film also had a nice kodachrome look to it and flet like the twenties. Any fault I have with the film can not be blamed on Clooney, as he is solid as both director and actor. The source of the films problems is that the script looses focus in many parts and becomes uneven. The script began to be consumed with the background of football and instead it should have focused on comedy. This caused the film to really lag in about two parts of the for me.
In all laughed a good amount in this film and smiled for a good portion more. Sure there are sections of this film that are absolutely dull and ruin the momentum but there are just enough good scenes to enjoy the film. The only real fault I can find in with the film is that the script should have been tighter and less bloated about how pro football came to be. If the film would have focused more on the screwball comedy aspects and put the two stars of the film together more often then may have been a better film. Over all it is not an entirely bad film and I would mildly recommend it for the charms of the two stars, along with a few funny scenes.
¾ Stars
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