It’s hard to put into words my feelings about Leatherheads. Typically bad movies are a critic’s dream because it is so easy to spill vitriol all over the place; far more easy than it is with a film you enjoyed. However, with Leatherheads, what you have here are the right elements being put together in the wrong experiment. Set in the mid-1920s, this film plays homage to the slapstick comedy of an era that needs to love, and on top of it all, not a single joke hits home leading the film into utter boredom.
George Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, an aging football star playing for the Duluth Bulldogs. Dodge has an arrogance about him, but his ultimate desire is to play football forever and go from playing on dirt fields in Duluth to packed stadiums in front of thousands of fans. Only problem is all the teams are going bankrupt, including his. Answer? Carter Rutherford, a hot shot college football star who’s also a war hero to boot (Krasinski). The kicker is that journalist Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) is out to cook Carter’s goose yah see, and prove that he’s actually a fraud, no matter how good he is at football.
Cue plenty of montage scenes, ’20s tomfoolery and enough obvious comedy to prove that no thought went into the screenplay outside of “What else is goofy?” Seriously, “goofy” is the right word to use here, you are supposed to laugh at these dimwits because they are dimwitted, and when you aren’t laughing at that, pratfalls take the stage and you can only look on and shrug.
The unfortunate thing here is that both Clooney and Zellweger are perfect for this style of film, but their ability to connect with the material doesn’t matter if it is this boring and unfunny. For two hours you watch everyone on screen yuck it up all the way until the credits roll.
Clooney’s name attached to the picture is going to sell opening weekend tickets regardless, but I don’t see this film having much life after the opening weekend even though April’s titles leave a lot to be desired. The biggest letdown for the ladies will be the film’s lack of heart, which is why they want to watch Clooney in such a role anyway. I realize there is a small movement out there that loves John Krasinski thanks to his role as Jim on the American “Office”, but I hardly doubt that group has enough power to turn this turd into anything resembling a hit.
