Leatherheads

By Nathan Young

Professional football has grown so much that Super Bowl Sunday is an unofficial national holiday.

That was not always the case, as 'Leatherheads' points out. George Clooney's latest directorial effort is a fun and nostalgic look at the game at its roots, leather helmets inluded (thus the movie's title). While it does not reach hall-of-fame status in the sports movie category, Clooney's performance both behind the camera and in front of it is worthy of a 'thumbs up'.

Jimmy "Dodge" Connelly (Clooney) is an aging football player for the Duluth (Minn.) Bulldogs who aspires to make pro football a legitmate enterprise in the mid-1920's. The college game is booming, drawing tens of thousands of fans each week. The Bulldogs, by comparison, are lucky to crack triple digits at the turnstiles. Dodge concocts a plan to woo college superstar and war hero Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (John Krasinski, aka Jim from 'The Office'), to join his team. Carter is a stellar running back at Princeton who also is a successful pitchman for many products.

Just as Dodge begins to negotiate with Carter and his meddlesome agent (Jonathan Pryce), an enterprising reporter enters the scene. Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) is a tough customer who is looking to find the real story of Carter's wartime heroics that earned him a medal of honor. He is no hero at all, according to a source, and she sets out to prove it while following the Bulldogs' season.

Carter joins the Bulldogs and pro football begins to take off. A love triangle ensues involving the three main characters, with Dodge providing the rugged, experienced option to Carter's boyish charm for Ms. Littleton.

The movie starts a little slow, but finds its stride about a quarter of the way through. The cast is too good to let things bog down too much. Clooney, a movie star in the truest sense of the term, carries the load. He brings a bit of his 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' sensibility to the proceedings. Zellweger is fesity in the role of Lexie. In a man's world, she makes her presence known without being intimidated. Krasinski again proves he has a promising future ahead of him after being one of the few bright spots in last year's otherwise forgettable 'License To Wed'. He strikes a perfect balance of self confidence and charm.

The supporting cast is very good as well, especially Keith Loneker as the hulking high schooler turned pro Big Gus. In fact, a scene where Gus joins the team at a train station is one of the funniest in the movie. Clooney the director gets the most out of all of his actors and moves the story along in fine fashion.

The movie does not have as many laugh out loud moments as I had hoped for. The quality of the story overcame that fact though, thanks in part to former 'Sports Illustrated' columnist Rick Reilly, who co-wrote the screeplay. The movie is an ode to the way football used to be played, before money turned it from a game into a business. It is an entertaining way to spend an hour and a half, and ultimately that is the point of seeing this type of movie in the first place.