Leatherheads (DVD)

Dodge Connelly is an ageing American football player in the fledgling professional sport during the 1920s. When his team loses their sponsor and the league is on the verge of collapse, Dodge convinces college football star Carter Rutherford to join their ranks. He hopes it will revive interest in the sport. Carter is a handsome, decorated war hero, but ambitious reporter Lexie Littleton is determined to prove he's too good to be true. While she digs ...
...And as the professional game becomes less of a brawl and more of a heavily regulated sport, Dodge has to try to keep the team together and win the girl of his dreams.

As a director, George Clooney approaches many subjects but all the films he makes are based in the past and are tinged with a sense of nostalgia. It's as though he's addicted to old Hollywood glamour. This one is no different. The movie is very evocative and has a strong ... more

Dodge Connelly is an ageing American football player in the fledgling professional sport during the 1920s. When his team loses their sponsor and the league is on the verge of collapse, Dodge convinces college football star Carter Rutherford to join their ranks. He hopes it will revive interest in the sport. Carter is a handsome, decorated war hero, but ambitious reporter Lexie Littleton is determined to prove he's too good to be true. While she digs for dirt, Dodge and Carter become rivals for her affections. And as the professional game becomes less of a brawl and more of a heavily regulated sport, Dodge has to try to keep the team together and win the girl of his dreams.

As a director, George Clooney approaches many subjects but all the films he makes are based in the past and are tinged with a sense of nostalgia. It's as though he's addicted to old Hollywood glamour. This one is no different. The movie is very evocative and has a strong sense of time and place about it. The entire film is shot in sepia tones, which immediately creates a feeling of nostalgia for the 1920s. This is enhanced by the use of the Universal logo from the time that precedes the action. The movie is shot very much in the style of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The film quality is almost creamy, which adds to the sheen of glamour and makes the actors look like old-fashioned movie stars. There's a wonderful shot of a backlit kiss that puts the actors in silhouette that just screams old-fashioned glamour. The director uses montages of newspaper headlines and "newsreel" footage to show the rise of the game and the team's fortunes. There's a chase sequence that could almost come from a Keystone Cops movie, with Clooney and Zellweger wearing police greatcoats and outwitting their pursuers with slapstick. A particularly muddy football match recalls a similar event in a Harold Lloyd silent film. There are also confrontations between the leads that thrive on spiky banter and recall the screwball comedies of yesteryear. All are beautifully edited to make the comedy zing.

The production design is spot-on and there are oodles of period detail in every frame, from the pomaded hair and collar studs of the men to the matte red lipstick, marcel waves and elaborate hats of the women. There are also beautifully rendered advertising hoardings that reflect the styles of the period and Carter's celebrity. The costumes look wonderful, with men in worsted wool suits and women in co-ordinated suits in velvets and tweeds with often ostentatious cloche hats or glittering flapper dresses as evening wear.

Clooney juxtaposes the experiences of both ends of the social spectrum and both sides of the professional/college football league in montage. So we see the acclaim Carter receives as a college football player with all the latest equipment as opposed to the ramshackle nature of the professional game where doughy men have at each other on muddy turnip fields. We see the lives the men have left behind as they go back to harvesting the fields, welding in factories and going down the mine as the team becomes bankrupt. But this isn't serious social commentary as the events are all played for laughs. However, there is a problem attributing the film to a single genre. It comes across as a screwball-comedy-sports movie hybrid, which makes me suspect it will have trouble finding the right audience. I think there's probably too much American football for the comedy fans and too much light comedy and romance for the sports fans. The romance is handled with a light touch, making for a frothy confection overall. However, like a delicious sorbet, it may go down well at the time, but may fail to satisfy in the long run.

The screenplay by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly could almost have been written during the heyday of the screwball movie. It has a near-Depression era setting, a roguish hero who has to pull himself up by his bootstraps and compete for the hand of lady fair with a boyish opponent. The lady in question is a whip-smart, sassy broad trying to make a name for herself in a male dominated world. Their courting ritual involves them butting heads on a regular basis, tossing out pithy put-downs at machine-gun pace. As a result the gag ratio is high. However there isn't much in terms of story or character development, making the movie feel like a frothy confection. You can see where the film is going from the outset, but that doesn't make it any the less enjoyable. You can't really take the love triangle seriously as it's patently obvious who will end up bickering into the sunset with whom. The background to the sport becoming regulated isn't sufficiently explained to make you care and the intriguing sounding on-the-field cons are never demonstrated. There are a few contrivances required to tie up all the loose ends come the finale but they work within the style of the genre. The pacing is swift, with plenty of gags to keep the plot motoring, so the film doesn't feel a-hundred-and-thirteen minutes long. The dialogue is sharp and funny, with plenty of barbed insults bouncing around and a good sense of the heightened language and style of the original genre. However, there's some blaspheming you would never have heard on screen at the time thanks to the censorious Hayes Code.

As Dodge, George Clooney is in full-on Cary Grant mode. He's a grade-A charmer with a twinkle in his eye and a willingness to make a fool of himself if that is what the script requires. He puts his matinee idol looks to good use and showcases the comic timing we haven't seen since "O Brother Where Art Thou?" The only thing that could improve his performance would be chemistry with his on-screen love interest.

Renee Zellweger tries to play Lexie as a screwball comedy heroine in the vein of Katharine Hepburn. She even apes the late, great actress' drawling but precise intonation in a half-hearted manner when she remembers, but that isn't often. Her look very much suits the style of the period but her performance is superficial and it's easy to be distracted from her turn as a ballsy broad by her constantly pursed lips. John Krasinski is toothy and boyish as Carter Rutherford. He comes across as one of those corn-fed American guys so at a home with a sense of his own power and place in the world. It suits the character and allows him to play smug and cheesy effectively, without making him despicable. Stephen Root is good value as drunk journalist Suds and Jonathan Pryce is slippery as Carter's agent.

Randy Newman's original music fits the style and period setting of the movie hand in glove. It begins at is means to go on with pounding drums and male barbershop vocals that are joined by Dixieland jazz woodwinds and raucous brass that reflect the fun nature of the film. There are lots of playful motifs that reference the period setting with hi-hat, twanging strings and jazzy woodwinds. There are also chipper piano passages that underline the comic aspects of the story. Certain characters have specific themes, such as the banjo and detuned piano that accompany the appearance of the enormous Gus. The romance is underlined by twinkly piano melodies when Dodge sees Lexie for the first time. Meanwhile the games are accompanied by sweeping strings and bright flutes and brass when things are going well and blowsy brass when it's all about the laughs. The film is designated a caper by the jangling piano and jazzy brass that sits alongside the montages. So it's the ideal accompaniment to the movie.

"Leatherheads" is a wonderfully fast-paced modern take on the screwball comedy. But as with most of those movies, it's immensely enjoyable to watch at the time but utterly inconsequential. Despite an enormously charming performance from George Clooney, a strong sense of time and place and a fast-paced, acid-tongued script, there's little you'll remember once the credits have rolled. But that's not a reason not to see it. If you love the screwball genre or you're after something charming and fun (say, as a date movie), there are far worse things to see. 

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