Stars: Renee Zellweger, Jonathan Pryce, George Clooney, John Krasinski

Director: George Clooney

Summary: An aging football star habours dreams of making his team go professional and sets all his hopes on a promising young player whose story may or may not be true.

From his casual charm to his cleft chin, George Clooney has frequently drawn comparisons to an actor of another age: Cary Grant. With his third directorial effort, the Oscar winner pays homage to the style of films that helped make Grant famous, such as BRINGING UP BABY and HIS GIRL FRIDAY. In 1925, when LEATHERHEADS takes place, professional American football is a joke, especially when compared to its more respected university cousin. Teams across the country are folding, and player Dodge Connelly (Clooney) will do anything to keep his own team, the Duluth Bulldogs, from going under. The enterprising (read: scheming) Dodge steals Princeton star and war hero Carter Ruthford (John Krasinski, THE OFFICE – AN AMERICAN WORKPLACE) from his school, and soon the Bulldogs are winning, but it's the game of football that is the real champion as fans pack the stadiums. Meanwhile, reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) begins investigating Rutherford's past, thanks to a tip from one of the star's old war buddies that he may not be all he seems. The pre-regulation American football is dirty, but it's far cleaner than the action when Dodge and Carter vie for Lexie's affections.
From the classic Universal logo that opens the film, Clooney firmly sets his film in the sepia-toned past. His lightning-fast dialogue is certainly reminiscent of the repartee between Grant and co-stars such as Katharine Hepburn and Rosalind Russell. But as much as he owes to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s, he also is mining the same vein that his frequent collaborators, the Coen Brothers, did in films such as THE HUDSUCKER PROXY and INTOLERABLE CRUELTY. Clooney's previous directorial efforts--CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND and GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK--were also both stylish films set in the past, but LEATHERHEADS is a lighter, more mainstream work that contains a lot of fun to go with the flair.

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Leatherheads is a sort of two-fisted homage, simultaneously celebrating the early, unstructured days of professional football and the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s. George Clooney stars as "Dodge" Connelly of the Duluth Bulldogs, a wily (if a bit long in the tooth) player whose team goes bankrupt. His solution is to lure a war hero and star of the college-football circuit, Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (John Krasinski from the American version of The Office) to join the team and, through the sheer force of his celebrity, legitimise professional football. Little does Connelly know that Rutherford's war record is being scrutinised by reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) and what she uncovers may undermine the whole scheme. Leatherheads isn't seamless--at times the screwball flavour feels forced and Zellweger's performance is laboured--but those few awkward elements only emphasize how zippy and fun the rest of the movie is. Clooney also directed and demonstrates some real flair with editing and letting the fringes of the story be as vital as the main plot. Krasinski, with his goofy handsomeness and a streak of Jimmy Stewart charm, shows real promise as a movie star. Though Leatherheads has plenty of broad slapstick (and most of it is pretty funny), the movie's real comic richness comes out in offhand gestures and sly revelations of character. All in all, it isn't Preston Sturges (director of classic comedies like The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story), but it's in his neighbourhood, and that's a pretty wonderful neighbourhood to be in. --Bret Fetzer

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region B
Special Features:	U Control, Picture in Picture, Feature commentary with director George Clooney and producer Grant Heslov
Year:	2008
Release Date:	October 20, 2008
Runtime:	114 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	8255486
Keywords:	English, Comedy, General, Leatherheads
Genre:	Comedy