American football movies are always a tough sell in Australia because, really, we just don't care for the game. But that's only half the problem with Leatherheads. The other half is George Clooney who, as writer and director of this film, should have fired himself as the star.
Leatherheads is set in 1925, when pro-football was yet to take off. In order to save his club the Deluth Bulldogs, Clooney's ageing maverick player Dodge Connelly, buys the services of college star Carter Rutherford. Overnight, this move turns Dodge's beloved game into a cash cow with rules that Dodge doesn't want to play by.
The set-up for Leatherheads is pure screwball as pioneered by the likes of Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges. Trouble is, George Clooney isn't Cary Grant or Clark Gable and every time he does one of these roles – and he does them a lot – I can't get past his incessant mugging.
Zellweger, on the other hand, gets her Rosalind Russell-Dorothy Parker role just right, and John Krasinski, best known for the US version of The Office, is charming as Carter.
There are a few laughs, and a strong support cast helps. But this is a bit of a mess – unsure if it wants to be a drama, romance, comedy, slice of history or commentary on the selling-out of sports. And that this culminates in a muddy and boring American Football game, doesn't help.
Die-hard Clooney fans will want to get to the cinema to see their man-hunk, but everyone else would be better off spending their money at the local video store on classics such as Cary Grant's His Girl Friday or Clark Gable's It Happened One Night.
As George Clooney's latest self-conscious stab at turning himself into a Hollywood icon, Leatherheads rates two and a half stars.
