Leatherheads
George Clooney acts and directs the roaring twenties football rom-com, Leatherheads. George Clooney in a film set in the twenties should remind you of “O brother, where art though?” And that should remind you of his work with the Coen brothers and their love for staging an exact simulacra of a period in America. Then you find out that Renee Zellwegger plays a fast talking career gal reporter and this may be some kind of screwball comedy homage.
Then you watch the movie.
It’s nothing like this.
Leatherheads completely missis the point of all that. Clooney, you would think, could’ve captured the magic of the Coens and served a throwback to screwball comedies, but decided to mix and match story and tone of the show. It was a mess. A romantic comedy that had no laughs. A grid iron story that lacked oomph. A sad spectacle as the final big game in the mud. It was 3-0 until the end. And it was a boring game. Same for the movie.
2 of 5 stars.
