It is 1925 and Jimmy “Dodge” Connolly (played by George Clooney) plays professional American Football for the Duluth Bulldogs. It is the early (unsuccessful) days of American football and he is an old-hand who likes to play dirty for the fun of it. When the team goes broke, Dodge schemes to recruit Princeton football prodigy and American war hero Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford (John Krasinski). With Rutherford on show the Bulldogs become very successful, but the crafty female reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) conspires with her editor to “cook the goose” of the Bulldogs’ main star.Clooney’s third foray into film directing is an homage to the great screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s such as His Girl Friday (1940) – Clooney in the Cary Grant role, Zellweger as Rosalind Russell and Krasinski as Ralph Bellamy. This is a nice idea but, unfortunately, also acted as a reminder of what I was missing. Leatherheads is filmed well enough with regards to cinematography and the costumes and music etc are good – it does pretty well in recreating the look and feel of the 1920s. It also showcases George Clooney’s brilliant versatility as an actor – compare this with Michael Clayton (2007). He is a very good comic actor with smart wit and timing.
However, Leatherheads does not live up to a fully satisfying whole. The film’s plot is incredibly thin and, all in all, does not carry enough weight to maintain interest for one hour let alone this film’s two hour running length. It did not really hold together; a scene ends and you may find yourself wondering “why was that there?” Ideas are not developed through, leading to a lack of investment in the characters and thus a lack of interest in the plot and its conclusions. And what is the film’s target audience? If you are keen on the love-triangle aspect of the story, will you be interested by all the American Football?
