ShareThis"Leatherheads" looks like a movie that couldn't go wrong.It puts good-looking and talented stars George Clooney, Renee Zellweger and "The Office's" John Krasinski in a love triangle rich with barbs and sparks. It takes place in the 1920s against an atmospheric backdrop of speakeasies, passenger trains and period football fields. It's populated by lovable underdogs, spunky reporters, questionable heroes and dirty, rotten scoundrels.But while the individual elements are breezily charming and often funny, the film never quite comes together into a seamless piece.Clooney directs the movie, his third after "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." This is easily his most mainstream project as director, but even so it's not something so generic that he shouldn't have bothered.The title refers to the leather helmets football players wore in the early days. In 1925, those helmets were about all that the men had for protection.And as shown here, players on ragtag pro teams need that protection. While college teams are made up of clean-cut young men who have thick playbooks and draw thousands of fans, professional football is still in the Neanderthal period, with no rules outlawing brutal hits and tackles, among other things.It's such a rowdy game that it's considered uncouth to attend. But players like Dodge Connolly (Clooney), captain of the Duluth Bulldogs, love it and can't live without it.Facing his darkest hour, Dodge has a brainstorm. Since college ball is so popular, why not recruit the biggest name in college sports, Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (Krasinski)? Not only is Carter handsome and athletically gifted, he's also a hero of the Great War, during which he single-handedly was able to get an entire outfit of Germans to surrender to him.Carter's agent, CC Frazier (Jonathan Pryce), sees the merit -- and the profit -- in Dodge's proposal. But he doesn't realize that Chicago reporter Lexie Littleton (Zellweger) is less interested in Carter's exploits on the field than she is in exposing the hero as a fraud.Working from a script by sportswriters Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, Clooney gets plenty of sight gags out of the team's practices, games and shenanigans. Dodge's ritual of dictating game stories to plastered reporter Suds (Stephen Root in fine form) is hilarious.Dodge and Lexie's first meeting is a delight. In fact, nearly all their exchanges are entertaining. Clooney and Zellweger fit perfectly in the time period, have great chemistry and dance their way through their rapid-fire dialogue. Krasinski is also good as the conflicted Carter.One of the film's problems is that there are so many supporting characters that it's hard to get invested in any beyond the main trio. Another is that the shifts between broad comedy, more cerebral screwball comedy, the overhaul of football and crusading journalism are awkward."Leatherheads" is not a bad film. But with a bit more work on the script and editing, Clooney could have had a solid trio on his directing resume instead of two touchdowns and a field goal.Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.3.5 stars (out of five)(Contact Knoxville News Sentinel film critic Betsy Pickle at pickle(at)knews.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
'Leatherheads' doesn't score many points
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