Leatherheads 04/08/08

For about a half hour into this film, the movie was in serious trouble. It looked good, the acting was good, it had cool music. There was nothing technically wrong except for the fact that it wasn't funny. They had some potential humorous characters but a lack of any real jokes. The movie's humor was surviving on a shallow reservoir of Clooney's weird facial expressions. There was alot of talk about screwball football with no rules, but very little of any trick plays or cheating was actually shown. This movie, as a comedy, is incredibly lightweight. It seemed to be written by astute British snobs who like to drink tea while discussing monacles. There's one paticular scene that demonstrates this I think. Clooney is discussing a new teammate who apparently is in high school. Except he looks thirty years old and is approximately 300 pounds heavy. Clooney is asking him questions and gets weird answers. He goes back to think, almost says something, than stops and doesn't say anything. What was he going to say? In a better script, probably something funny. But in this one the writers apparently couldn't think of anything. 
What saves this movie is Renee Zellweger, who is currently number 2 on my favorite actress list. (It has been a war between her and Cate Blanchett for awhile. Renee has slipped simply because Cate is on a fantastic roll of late) Zellweger and Clooney are incredible in their scenes together. The sharp snappy dialogue really pops off the screen. Their romance isn't really interesting, I would rather watch the passive-aggressive fighting. Forming the third wheel is John Krasinki, from the Office, in his first big movie role. He's very good too although his character never receives a fair shake from the script I feel. 
This production is soaking in talent through and through, but its one of those productions that have huge talent working on substandard material. As my broadcast professor would say, "Their polishing a turd." This movies speaks to the truth that the script is the most important thing in a movie production. It needed a rewrite or two and then some new energy infused into or something. This is a mild recommendation.