Leatherheads Review [2]
Posted by Joseph Lee on 04.08.2008
I'll spare you the football pun. But I do have plenty.
Starring:
George Clooney as Dodge Connolly
John Krasinski as Carter Rutherford
Renee Zellweger as Lexi Littleton
Jonathan Pryce as CC
Stephen Root as Suds
Story: In 1925, during the infancy of football, there are no rules. Players still wear leather headgear. And Dodge Connolly is a older man who wants to keep playing, so he manages to get young college player and war hero Carter Rutherford (along with his fans) to join the Duluth Bulldogs. Lexi Littleton tags along trying to debunk Rutherford's war heroism for the Chicago Tribune.
Fun Trivia: The character Jimmy "Dodge" Connolly is based on the life of Johnny "Blood" McNally who played for multiple NFL teams from 1925 to 1938. From 1926-1927 he played for the Duluth Eskimo's and later won 4 World Championships with the Green Bay Packers. He is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame.
As I have expressed before, I am a fan of George Clooney. I liked his early movie career, I really enjoyed last year's Michael Clayton and generally I think he's a good actor. So when the oppurtunity came about to see him in a comedy, I was very interested. I haven't seen him do too much comedy outside of the Ocean's franchise, and there it was only subtle. Leatherheads promised a quirky screwball football comedy set in the '20's, something you don't see every day.
I'm very pleased to see that this manages to spoof "heartwarming sports stories" better than The Comebacks could have hoped to do last year. The end, in particular, is a nice little twist on the typical "down on their luck team wins the big game" storyline. This movie isn't even about that, but I enjoyed the jab, intentional or not. The movie provides a few chuckles in the beginning, but as it continues and the characters start to match well with each other, it gets funnier.
Clooney himself seems to know as much about comedy as he does dramatic acting. It's not so much the jokes or physical comedy he puts himself in, but his facial expressions and sarcastic tone of voice add something to the role he plays. The same can be said for co-star Renee Zellweger, who plays the strong yet goofy character Lexi Littleton. The moments when she and Clooney are together are the best because of the way they can play off of each other. The third part of the triangle, John Krasinski proved to me he can carry his own weight in a theatrical comedy role. I haven't seen The Office but I enjoyed him here.
The minor roles filled in quite nicely as well. It's good to see Stephen Root in whatever he's in, but as a drunk sports writer he's pretty funny. Jonathan Pryce does well as the sleazy sports agent too. Another thing I enjoyed about this movie was it's old-fashioned feel. Everything from the use of the very first Universal Pictures logo to the "old-time" photos and announcers added to this.
The only thing I didn't like was the actual football. With the exception of the clever twist I mentioned earlier, the football scenes themselves came off as a little boring. When the announcers in the movie mention this I agreed with them. It's supposed to be a sports comedy and the actual sports came off as flat. I was more intrigued with the story of the triangle and the sports moments felt like filler.
However, when it's all said and done, Leatherheads entertained me. Sometimes you shouldn't expect more than that.
The 411: Leatherheads is a worthy comedy that provides plenty of laughs. George Clooney's comedic timing is almost as good as his dramatic acting. His direction isn't bad either. The rest of the cast holds their own and a enjoyable movie is delivered.
