Leatherheads (Blu-ray Disc)

I've changed my mind – if only ever-so slightly – on the period 1930's-style screwball George Clooney/Renée Zellweger football comedy Leatherheads. Not that I disliked it upon my initial viewing last April (I was lukewarm to it, feeling as if it ran out of steam and ideas halfway through), but I certainly enjoyed it a heck of a lot more sitting at home than I ever did in the theater. The honest truth is that this title proves to be a perfect laidback mid-afternoon rental, and as an example of pure movie star charisma and charm I admit to being left perfectly content.

The film revolves around 40-something reprobate and manipulator Jimmy 'Dodge' Connelly (Clooney), a professional football player working to transition the sport into the mainstream using the talents of big-time collegiate star and war hero Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) as this enterprise's key asset. But shadowing his every move is fast-talking Chicago reporter Lexie Littleton (Zellweger), her delving into Rutherford's past having the potential to destroy everything the aging athlete has accomplished.

It's a love triangle, of course, and like many of the great screwball farces of yesterday there's plenty of pithy banter, sexy innuendo, mistaken identities and muddily foolish pratfalls. The thing is, when you look at a lot of the great screwball epics of the 1930's and 40's like Some Like it Hot!, His Girl Friday and The Awful Truth, upon their conclusion the viewer found themselves nearly as giddy as the protagonists themselves. It was almost as if they had drunk from the same bottle of champagne, the bubbly effervescence of both the comedy and the romance leading to a nearly-drunken stupor so rapturously beguiling you didn't want it to end.

Director Clooney, so wonderful as Dodge, just can't quite mix a similar cocktail from the other side of the camera. The film moves in fits and starts and never finds the rhythmic pitter-patter of rapid-fire dialogue and energy it so desperately needs. The pieces are there, the story written by Duncan Brantley and sportswriter Rick Reilly is solid (if a bit restrained) and the sets and costuming are authentically perfect, it's just the final execution that feels a bit off.

It doesn't help that Zellweger is all wrong for this. She looks fabulous, her bright red lipstick and wildly imaginative collection of hats filling the screen beautifully. Yet she never connect in the role, the actress unable to pull off the Rosalind Russell or Katherine Hepburn-like spunk the part requires. The lines between her and her costars are good ones yet for some reason they seldom sizzle or snap, most falling inexplicably flat almost as if the actress is so thrilled with herself for saying them she forgot to give them the needed energetic push.

Still, like I said earlier I got a lot more enjoyment watching this at home than I ever did at the multiplex. Clooney was just born for roles like this one. This is a character tailor-made for the superstar and he fits into the man's skin like a Depression era suit. He's glib, silly, suave, stupid, tough, conniving, sexy and, most of all, funny, spitting out his lines like an electric typewriter clicking away at warp speed.

Don't get me wrong. This ain't no classic by any stretch of the imagination. The film starts out great, maybe even better than great, but after about twenty minutes the momentum begins to waver and slow until by the end the entire thing is sputtering along on nothing more then good-natured fumes. Still, for whatever reason I was able to look over these flaws (at least somewhat) in the comfort of my own home, and I think audiences who were reticent to watch this in April are going to be open to seeing what's what on DVD.

There is only one special feature on the Blu-ray release of Leatherheads, and that's a spirited audio commentary with Clooney and producer, pal and character actor Grant Heslov. There isn't much in the way of substance to this chat (so don't expect the duo to talk about the numerous historical liberties), the whole thing more of a comedy routine than a behind-the-scenes discussion. It's awfully entertaining, though (especially during the climactic 'big game'), and for those so inclined definitely worth a listen.