Leatherheads - REVIEW

There are quite a few things wrong with Leatherheads. It goes on too long, it takes itself too seriously in some parts, and it's always one or two steps behind the proper pace it needs to be if it wants to be an old fashioned screwball comedy/romance. The screenplay has a number of good verbal tennis matches filled with zingers being traded every other line, but somehow the whole thing feels just a bit....mild. There are some moments that work, such as a police raid on a speakeasy, but most of the time Leatherheads is always falling just short of what it wanted to achieve, despite the number of small saving graces. However, sometimes parts just don't gell; I never in a million years would believe that John Krasinski would have the hots for Renee Zellweger, for instance. That, and almost every scene seems so drenched in brown that even Zellweger's red dresses don't "pop" like they should. That said, it's a perfectly fine way to spend a few hours, but it just feels like too much of the time the actors are visibly trying to be smart alecky/witty and that it doesn't come naturally enough to them. They don't fail at pulling it off, they just don't aim high enough. Parts of the screenplay have some great exchanges, but as I said, the line delivery never makes the dialogue spark like it should, and as a result, the film never sparks like it should. This easily should have been a better film than "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" because of the dialogue and the lack of awkward spaces between funny moments, but because the actors never truly succeed (whereas "Pettigrew"'s cast was sublime), the whole thing falls short. It can be an enjoyable experience, but only once you get over the fact that someone/thing went and gave the film a wit-ectomy.

Grade: C+

Current Nominations: Best Picture (#3), Best Director - George Clooney(#3), Best Actor - George Clooney(#3), Best Actor - John Krasinski (#4), Best Actress - Renee Zellweger (#3), Best Costume Design(#2), Best Original Score - Randy Newman(#3).

Number of 2008 films seen: 4