Leatherheads B

PG-13. In theatres. 113 minutes.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the screwball comedies. It Happened One Night was a bit of a yawner for me, and Bringing Up Baby left me cold. So I greeted the news that George Clooney was following up Goodnight and Good Luck (B+) with a ’30-style screwball comedy with some trepidation. Still, when first Renee Zellweger’s name (as close as we’ve got to the female comedic leads of old) was attached, and then John Krazinski’s (Jim from The Office), I was tentatively excited. Neither my trepidation nor my excitement were completely justified by this prohibition-era football romantic comedy.

Clooney plays “Dodge” Connelly, an aging pro-footballer from the days when the pro game was played in front of hundreds, not thousands, and the pay was just enough to keep the athletes in whiskey and women. When Dodge sees the crowds for war hero and college star Carter Rutherford (Krazinski), he realizes the hope of professional football is in the squeaky-clean college star and sets about recruiting him. Zellweger plays Lexie Littleton, the Chicago Tribune journalist sent to get the straight story on Rutherford’s wartime heroics by loving it out of him, but not before she’s fallen under the gaze of Dodge. Sometimes witty (and sometimes not) banter ensues as the boys fight for Littleton’s affection, and Littleton sets Rutherford up then looses the stomach for knocking him down. Still, it’s the invasion of rules and standards on a child’s game once gloriously free of them that Clooney really seems interested in exploring. What does it mean to grow up? And what does it cost you?

While Clooney and Zellweger produce a surprising amount of heat, in the end it’s the football games that are the most fun. Physical comedy comes natural for all the leads, and Clooney and Krazinski are athletic enough to be believable. The cinematography is top-notch. The story meanders a bit in the middle, but never really loses its way. The tone’s a bit uneven and the laughs, hit-and-miss. More than anything, it’s a movie Hollywood doesn’t make any more. There’s a reason for that, as the box office bore out, but I enjoyed it quite a bit, if only for sentimental reasons. B