Directed by: George Clooney
Starring: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Root
Football was once played with no pads and leather helmets which likely did not prevent any head injuries. A football player's shelf life was relatively shorter, I'm sure, but they dusted themselves off and played as long as possible. It was a living. George Clooney's Leatherheads takes place at the dawn of professional football, when the sport was fledgling and needed a commissioner appointed to crack down on trick plays, injuries, and unethical financial dealings. It needed a wholesome star to get behind and the sport found it in Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (Krasinski), a World War I hero who had an entire German battalion surrender to him. That is his story and he's sticking with it.
Leatherheads stars Clooney as Jimmy "Dodge" Connolly, a player for the early 1920's Duluth Bulldogs who doubles as the team's promoter. Dodge cleverly employs the local newspaper to write laudatory stories about the Bulldogs...as dictated by Dodge himself. But, the team and the league are struggling financially, so Dodge recruits Carter out of Princeton to play for the Bulldogs. Carter, based on his war stories, is an immediate hit. All seems well, until Chicago reporter Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) comes snooping around, sensing Carter's war record isn't what it seems, while engaging in mock hostility with Dodge, whom we all know will soon be her love interest.
The movie itself scores no points for originality. In fact, it is proud to be a throwback to screwball romantic comedies where everyone wisecracks liberally and all turns out well in the end. The villains get their comeuppance and the couple we think will get together does. What makes Leatherheads work is how much the actors clearly buy in. Clooney is born to be a Cary Grant smoothie and plays it perfectly. Zellweger is wonderful at playing a tough dame who doesn't make it easy for Dodge (or Carter) to win a spot in her heart. But, when she falls in love, she does it very convincingly. Krasinski is the straight man; naïve, goofy, and wide-eyed with an "aw shucks" expression permanently plastered on his face, even when he is fighting Dodge in a minutes-long fistfight which surprisingly results in no broken noses, black eyes, or even bruises.
Leatherheads captures the spirit of 1930's and 1940's comedies well, when such plotlines were considered fresh. The movie maintains a certain goofy energy which makes it fun, and naturally slight. But, you know what? That isn't a bad thing.
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