Leatherheads

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

This Friday in theatres is a football romantic comedy set in 1925 during the pre-football league with “Leatherheads” staring Oscar winners George Clooney and Rene Zellweger.

Dodge Connelly (Clooney) is a dashing football player who is trying to take his team, the Duluth Bulldogs, from bar room brawls to football stadiums as interest in the game fades. He must accomplish something fast before he loses all the team sponsors.

Faced with the collapse of the league, Dodge convinced his agent CC Frazier (Jonathan Pryce) to grab college football player Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski). A mythical golden-boy, Carter’s feat of capturing German soliders during WWII is created to get just the attention Dodge needs to save football. Carter makes the girls swoon and is the fastest runner to come to the sport.

Thinking that this golden boy is to good to be true, cub reporter Lexie Littleton (Rene Zellweger) starts digging to find the truth about Carter. While doing her investigating, Carter and Dodge start having feelings for Lexie and the rivalry for her affections begins with hilarity.

Dodge now has to keep his players together, watch the free wheeling sport he has come to love change, and figure out how to get the girl.

FINAL WORD: This is a nice film filled with slapstick comedy. Clooney as Connelly seems to let everything out for this role, including making fun of himself. He actually studies what he called “screwball” comedies for this role. Through it all you can see why he has such star power.

Krasinski as Rutherford plays it charming but there isn’t much in the way of emotional change. He seems to just hold one look. Zellweger as Lexie plays off Clooney extremely well. Pryce as Frazier plays the stereotypical ‘bad” agent.

Other characters with interesting names were - Big Gus (Kieth Loneker), Bakes (Malcolm Goodwin), Hardleg (Tommy Hinkley), Curly (Matt Bushnell), Ralph (Tim Griffin), Stump (Robert Baker), and the foul mouthed water boy Bug (Nick Bourges).

Clooney has taken on two jobs for “Leatherheads”, not only staring in the film but directing it as well. His three Academy Awards show Clooney knows how to put a story together. Two of those awards were for Best Director and Best Screenplay for “Good Night and Good Luck” but he also received Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Syriana” and all three came in the same year, which was the first time in the Academy’s history.

It was Duncan Brantley, a Sports Illustrated reporter, who came up with the idea for “Leatherheads”. He did this while researching the history of pro football and player John McNally and discovered stories never told before and the outrageous antics of the day.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give “Leatherheads” three tubs of popcorn out of five. If you love movies like “Bull Durham” or “The Comebacks” then this film is for you. A simple comedy done in a slower comedic style with a handsome George Clooney isn’t bad at all for the gals and comedy with a football is great for the guys.

The tagline of “in the beginning the rules were simple – there were no rules” give you a taste of how the game was once played.