current: Leatherheads [65/100]

Really nice try, but not quite. Director George Clooney [Good Night and Good Luck, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind], directing a first screenplay by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, almost pulls off a recreation of classical Hollywood screwball romantic comedies. Certainly, the story of professional football’s early days is a neglected one worth telling, and Leatherheads is well served by a strong cast including Clooney [unabashedly channeling Cary Grant], Renée Zellweger [channeling Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday], and John Krasinski [The Office], who is bound to wind up a movie star once the dust settles. Clooney and Zellweger have some serious old-fashioned chemistry, and the football action is funny and generally effective. What exactly is missing I’m not sure, a weak epilogue doesn’t help much, but more than anything what seems to haunt Leatherheads is that it is so not of our time. This is intentional, I realize, but somehow this charming, well-told tale just feels too antique to be on a big screen. I hope home video will be kinder to it, it’s a thoroughly likeable movie.