George Clooney’s love for old Hollywood (The Good German, Good Night, and Good Luck) is coming out again in Leatherheads, a perfectly agreeable modernization of the slapstick comedy, that just ends up overstaying its welcome. In much the same way as classic films of the genre, such as Bringing Up Baby or It Happened One Night, Leatherheads works when the focus is on the repartee between its stars Clooney and Renee Zellweger, putting them in impractical situations and having them throw comedic grenades at one another. Slapstick comedies themselves are modeled in a sort of absurdist fantasy world already, an exaggerated, sentimentalized reality where police chases are played for hi-jinks and bar room brawls can just as easily segue into drunken sing-a-long sessions. So obviously you need to have a sense of humor about yourself to do this genre… and Clooney is totally game as Dodge Connolly, a professional footballer who schemes up an idea to save the financially strapped Duluth Bulldogs for which he plays. Dodge persuades recent war hero and Ivy-league football star Carter Rutherford to join the team, at a cost. And reporter Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) tags along with him, trying to “cook (Carter’s) goose” for an assistant editor job at the Chicago Tribune. From the very beginning Clooney’s winking at the camera, but in a way that stays somehow true to his character… he’s the loveable goof and he shows a killer sense of comic timing (he hasn’t been this funny since O, Brother, Where Art Thou?). Zellweger manages to play a nice counterpart, returning the banter with equal gamesmanship but brings with her some annoying baggage, a plot. This film is always best when it’s about nothing at all, when the film can get away with gags, revel in its 1920s football scene or sit back with Clooney drink-in-hand and not have to worry too much about hitting story points. It’s when the film gets bogged down trying to further its – rather poorly written – narrative that it starts to struggle towards the goal line. There are obvious tone and pacing problems (and the football game finale grinds everything to a halt) but for a good long while the film coasts by on the charm of its star… and his obvious love for the time period and genre he’s portraying.
1 comment:
Forgettable film with a fun performance from Clooney. Don't care for Zellweger unless she is in Jerry Maguire or Nurse Betty. Fun sense of farce with a great slapsticky football climax, but it doesn't really mesh all that well. It really was good at first, but it wore out its welcome.
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