Movie Review: Leatherheads (2008)

Leatherheads is genuinely sweet and funny, though its pacing isn't always ideal. I can't decide if the plot was there or not--it tasted like it, but this was not a meaty sort of movie in the first place. Some bits lean heavy on nostalgia, and that probably won't play well with the general audience. There were times when I wanted to describe it as, "Lois Lane playing a sports reporter," and I mean that in a nice way. George Clooney and Renee Zellweger are ace with banter, John Krasinski did his thing where he is twenty feet tall and wonderful and kind of charismatically blank, and there was one scene with the three of them that made me laugh so hard I cried. There were also some excellent things done with camerawork--a couple of shots were especially lovely, though undemanding. I liked it A LOT--c/f the scene that made me weep with laughter--but much of it feels self-indulgent, and the pacing of the story is problematic. (Oh, Clooney. You are lucky I enjoy the things that amuse you.) If you are a fan of Clooney goofing around, or Zellweger snapping razor-sharp witty, or Krasinski being Jim Halpert, you might get a kick out of this.