LEATHERHEADS
By Josh Marks
Like so many Super Bowls that fall as flat as the two-liter bottle of Coke in the living room, “Leatherheads” fails to live up to the pre-movie hype.
George Clooney directs and stars in this romantic/sports comedy, marking his third time behind the camera (“Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”) and his first film that has opened in wide release. Audiences expecting gridiron glory would be wise to stay home -- this football flick simply fumbles too often to be recommended.
“Leatherheads” would have worked fine as a period piece about the nascent professional football league in 1925 and the scrappy characters who took the field, however Clooney rewrote the script to turn it into a screwball romance and thus it is a movie that never really finds its footing. The story is unevenly divided between the on-field and off-field antics, neither of which really works on any dramatic or comedic level.
Dodge Connelly (Clooney) is the star of the Duluth Bulldogs,
a motley crew of blue-collar guys who played pigskin before the era of luxury
suites, multi-million dollar contracts and, well, rules. The league is
disorganized and in financial straits and that means
The start of the love triangle is the point in which the movie starts to falter. The realization sets in that football is merely a backdrop to the romantic comedy angle and what could have been a meaningful story about the humble origins of the National Football League becomes a silly attempt to win the girl’s heart. There is little chemistry between the characters and the slapstick comes across as more contrived than clever.
“Leatherheads” does get the look and feel of the Roaring
Twenties right. The football uniforms look authentic for the time and old