[DVD Review (R2)] LEATHERHEADS
Leatherheads, the original screenplay, has floated in, out and around ‘Development Hell’ for going-on decades. It’s a pretty good read. It’s a lot like the movie Seabiscuit. Although this takes an in-depth study into the birth of rules and regulations in ‘American’ Football in the 1920s and the social and economic impacts that were afffecting the US during that period.
George Clooney - a man who has directed two movies prior to this; a near perfect cult gem (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) that has withstood accusations of butchering the original source screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and a genuine modern masterpiece (Goodnight and Good Luck) - has used his respectable clout and the weight of his recent spate of Oscar nominations, to drag Leatherheads from ‘Development Hell’ and bring it to the screen.
Along the way though he had a play around with his original source material and took out a little bit of the “serious stuff” to make room for a romantic angle. Then he took out a few more original pages to up the ’sporting underdog’ angle and, obviously thinking that the romance and the sporting underdog stuff didn’t sit entirely well with the “serious stuff”, he obviously just pulled another handful of pages and stuck a load of screwball comedy schtick in there too.
So to those still questioning why Leatherheads was a “flop” at the box office in both the US and the UK, let me ask you this: In how much of a hurry are you to rush out and throw money down on a movie paying homage to the screwball comedies of Preston Sturges and Howard Hawkes, by way of a Cary Grant style romance, in a movie about the birth of stringent rules in American Football and the depression era of that time? Just read that question back, straight away you’ll see the problem - Leatherheads is trying to offer everything to everyone without leaving enough of anything to satisfy anyone!
Dodge Connolly (George Clooney) is a charming, brash football hero playing within America’s nascent pro-football league in 1925. He’s determined to guide his team from bar brawls to packed stadiums but after the players lose their sponsor and the entire league faces certain collapse, Dodge convinces ex college football star Carter Rutherford (John Krazinski) - golden-boy war hero who, the media believe, single-handedly forced multiple German soldiers to surrender in WW1 - to join his team of underdogs. The captain hopes his latest move will help the struggling sport finally capture the country’s attention. This new champ is almost too good to be true, and Lexie Littleton (Rene Zelweger) aims to prove that’s the case. A cub journalist playing in the big leagues, Lexie is a spitfire newswoman who suspects there are holes in Carter’s war story. But while she digs deeper, the two teammates start to become serious off-field rivals for her fickle affections. As the new game of pro-football becomes less like the freewheeling sport he knew and loved, Dodge must both fight to keep his guys together and to get the girl of his dreams.
I’m a big fan of George Clooney’s work as an actor and as a director. I’m a growing fan of John Krazinski, thanks to his role in the US version of The Office. I cannot abide Renee Zelwegger though. Regular readers will be aware that watching her give a performance in any film outside of Jerry Maguire just makes my fists involuntarily clench at the mere sight of her desperately turning the proverbial cogs in her role, over-playing everything whilst having one eye on the camera and mouthing the words “Look at me! Award me! Respect me!”
Zelwegger is just about as bad here as I’ve come to expect from her. There’s nothing more I can say then that when it comes to her. I would have loved to have seen what a genuinely talented NATURAL actress like Jennifer Connelly or Rachel McAdams could have done in this role. Krazinski is a little safe and bland. I haven’t quite worked out whether he’s meant to play the character as “safe and bland” or whether it’s a fault in his performance. Clooney delivers his first flawed performance, in my eyes, since Batman and Robin. I think it’s because he’s trying. He’s trying to appear funny. He’s trying to be debonair. And he’s trying to mug during the movie’s forced slapstick moments. The problem is that Clooney is effortlessly talented. He doesn’t need to try at anything! Look at him do genre work in the likes of One Fine Day and The Peacemaker, where he just plays it down and natural - he comes across as born and bred movie star! That’s what was needed here.
The movie is absolutely gorgeous to look at. Clooney’s flaws in his performance do not transcend over to his directorial abilities. He makes the film look beautiful and he handles the absolute bombardment of story excess reasonably well but he really should have stayed more focused and streamlined the film into one type of flick - not several, all joustling for attention within one running time. However, critics of Clooney’s directorial style who accused him of cribbing his “style” from other famous 50s, 60s and 70s directors, will probably just find further weight to their argument here. There are actual moments within Leatherheads - and I’m not even one of the types that agrees with that aforementioned argument - where I did find myself thinking “Well, he’s just stolen that from The Coens when he made O Brother with them!” or “That’s a Soderbergh trick right there!”
It looks good. The music is quite involving and there’s some very, very, very minor seens of real likeability within the hundred-and-odd minute running time. It’s not a horrible film. It’s not a disaster. It’s just not a film worthy of your time. There’s better romantic movies, better period movies, better sports movies and better screwball comedies. So why waste your time on this one when you can check them out? Especially considering the level of talent involved in delivering such a bland affair as this.
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3 Responses to “[DVD Review (R2)] LEATHERHEADS”
What happened to Renee? What happened to her face, to be specific? Something ain’t right there.
My aunt and uncle lives right outside of San Diego, in Coronado. They were in LA a few years ago and actually ran into Georgie and Georgie’s dad. They said that he and his dad were insanely nice and jokey.
You ever seen that episode of AMERICAN DAD when Stan becomes one of George Clooney’s “posse” to help Francine murder him?
I liked that. Supposedly Clooney found it funny as **** too, he quoted it in an interview.
I like Clooney as an actor and as a “celebrity”. He’s the very definition of a “movie star” to me!
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