The last time George Clooney directed a movie, the result was the tight, thoughtful “Good Night, and Good Luck.” It would be difficult to match that multiple Oscar nominee, but “Leatherheads,” his new outing as director and star, is in another arena.
The football field, to be exact. This 1920s-era comedy is leisurely to the point of flabbiness, with a humdrum story line that finally seems to peter out entirely.
Clooney plays one Dodge Connolly, an aging player just barely hanging on in the ramshackle world of professional football. (College football is where it’s at in the 1920s.) His team, the Duluth Bulldogs, gets a shot in the arm when Dodge connives to hire college football’s most popular player, Carter “The Bullet” Rutherford (John Krasinski).
That decade in sports is a fun one, and the original script by “Sports Illustrated” writers Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly gets some of the flavor of the time.
Clooney tries to turn it into a Frank Capraesque screwball comedy, with mixed results. Carter, a WWI veteran, is rumored to be not quite the authentic hero he’s supposed to be, and a Chicago newspaper has put its star reporter, Lexi Littleton (Renee Zellweger), on the story.
Following roughly in the footsteps of “Bull Durham,” the film develops a bit of romance between the wised-up woman and the inexperienced young cub, even though we know Clooney’s beat-up journeyman is waiting in the wings.
There are a few other characters floating around: a predatory sports agent (Jonathan Pryce), a drunky sportswriter (Stephen Root), a football commissioner (Peter Gerety). Good actors all, but nobody fills in the sketchy script.
The movie looks dark and cool, and Randy Newman supplies the requisite Jazz Age music (and pops up in a cameo).
But after a few laugh-worthy gags early on, “Leatherheads” meanders. Things aren’t helped by Krasinski, whose subplot ought to be stronger. He’s very good at reacting to other people’s looniness in “The Office,” but here he doesn’t have much to play against.
Clooney seems to have lavished his attention on his saucy repartee with Zellweger. But they’re islands in the otherwise slack running time. This movie has taken too many shots to the head.
“Leatherheads”
No oomph: Slack comedy from director-star George Clooney, about a pro football team in the 1920s and a star college player (John Krasinski) enlisted to help. Scattered laughs can’t hide the flabbiness of the script, although Clooney gets some decent scenes with Renee Zellweger.
Rated: PG-13 for language
Now showing: opens today at Alderwood Mall, Everett, Galaxy Monroe, Marysville, Mountlake, Stanwood, Meridian, Metro, Oak Tree, Woodinville, Cascade Mall, Oak Harbor.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
