Hollywood’s
favorite star, George Clooney, has proven that he can do it all impeccably. His
performances are close to perfection (and if we renounce considering perfection
as an intangible ideal, yes, his performances were perfect), no matter if we’re
talking about his role in the hit TV series “ER” as Dr. Ross, or when he played
shrewd Michael Clayton in the eponymous movie or when he approached movie
directing.
“Leatherheads” gives him the opportunity to repeat history
and deliver a flawless performance, both as a leading actor and as the director
of the movie. It is not the first time for Clooney to be a movie director, he
has done it before remarkably in 2002’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” and 2005’s
“Good Night, and Good Luck,” and “Leatherheads” makes no exception.
The movie, which
opens today in theatres, is a screwball comedy that tackles several themes,
smoothly combining sports, love and the influence of money. There are clues
suggesting that “Leatherheads” is something else from the very beginning, such
as the fact that it was released two months after the football season had come
to an end, when it is almost a factual tradition that spring is the time for
baseball movies, while football movies open in the fall.
“Leatherheads” is set in the 1920s, in a time when America was
recovering from World War I and football hadn’t yet been tainted by money.
Those were the years when professional football was born, those were the times
that delimitate the pristine, passionate game from the money-driven sport.
Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, a witty quarterback in his
mid-40swho is determined to save his team, the Duluth Bulldogs, from
extinction. The team loses its sponsor and the players start to re-orientate
their ‘careers.’ This is until Dodge comes up with an idea that is meant to not
only save the team, but also to draw thousands of supporters to their matches:
war hero and Princeton star quarterback Carter “the Bullet” Rutherford
is brought to their team.
Rutherford would bring the
stamina and coherence to the Bulldogs, but also his fame and recognition as a
war hero, providing not only a better performance in the game, but also a name
for the Bulldogs. On leave from “The Office,” John Krasinski is the perfect
match for Rutherford.
But Rutherford doesn’t come
alone; involuntarily he draws Chicago Tribune reporter Lexie Littleton (played
by Renée Zellweger) who goes to great lengths to discover some dirty issues
from his past. Only that when there are two charming men and a beautiful woman,
something else comes along, and from foe she becomes the love interest of both
of them, engendering an amusing love triangle.
Obviously, the movie respects the time it is set in and it
contains rather candid flirting and more brawls and fighting. “Leatherheads”
doesn’t end with a big game, as many might expect, but it does contain an
important one, Duluth versus Chicago, a metaphorical depiction of the
rivalry between Connolly and Rutherford. The game, shot last year in Charlotte’s American
Legion Memorial Stadium, is more of a struggle in mud, a last battle marking
the end of genuine passion-driven football.
“Leatherheads” bears some resemblance to 1940’s “His Girl
Friday” or 1934’s “It Happened One Night,” suggesting that themes classics
approached can still represent successful stories nowadays and Clooney’s movie
is a page history of social transformation.
The script, written by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly and
first disclosed in 1991, provides the confidence and stamina of those years,
when everything was possible and going to great lengths brought flourishing
results. It was the depiction of the birth of pro football and at a larger
scale, of modern America.
“Leatherheads” definitely goes further than being a sports epic or a romantic
comedy, it is a movie about modernization and evolution.
Movie Type:Comedy, Sports
MPAA Rating:PG-13 for brief strong language.
Running Time:1 hr. 54 min.
Directed By:George Clooney
Cast:George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Krasinski, Wayne
Duvall, Jonathan Pryce
Released: April 4th, 2008 (wide)
