Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

George Clooney loves period films. He loves the look, the colors (or the black & white, in the case of GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK), the language, the different codes of conduct and the music. In his third film as a director, Clooney goes further back than either of his previous efforts (A DANGEROUS MIND; and GOOD NIGHT), into the 1920s when college football ruled sports, and professional football was played on empty farm fields with virtually no rules or fans to watch. Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, an almost over-the-hill player for a Duluth, Minnesota team on the verge of going bust. Most football fans are following the exploits of Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford (John Krasinski of "The Office"), a speedy runner with a million-dollar smile and a record as a war hero with a story of true bravery to back it up. Clooney's fellow players look to him to save the franchise, and he comes up with the crazy idea of essentially renting Rutherford and having him play part of the season with the Duluth team in exchange for a great deal of money for The Bullet and his shady agent CC (Jonathan Pryce).

While this wheeling and dealing is going on, the only reporter for the Chicago Tribune, Lexie Littleton (the razor-tongued Renée Zellweger), is investigating a rumor that Rutherford's war record may have been fudged a bit, and a story about an entire group of German soldiers surrendering to him may be slightly inaccurate. Posing as a sports reporter who might also be falling for the golden boy, Lexie is determined to get to the bottom of her story. Meanwhile Dodge might also be falling for the lovely and witty reporter, which almost guarantees fisticuffs between the two men are on the bill.

Portions of LEATHERHEADS are more interesting and/or entertaining than others. The film works best when Clooney and company tell the story of the changing game of football, about what happened when money started pouring into the professional side of the sport and rules played a much bigger factor. As one commentator in the film notes, things got boring once rules entered the game. The chronicle of the rise and attempted taking down of a sports hero echoes a lot of what's been happening in sports these days, and there's some strange comfort in knowing this is an age-old tradition. I also liked the scenes that conveyed a sense of time and place—the old steam trains on which the team traveled; the speakeasies they frequented; and the looks of the crusty sports writers the minute a woman steps into their hallowed booth.

LEATHERHEADS fails when it tries to hard to be funny. In the scene where Clooney and Zellweger first square off, the dialog (from writers Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly) is sharp and funny. Later in the film, as the pair escape from a drinking establishment during a police raid, the film resorts to slapstick humor that is so out of place in this movie it took me completely out of the moment. I know what Clooney was going for--a sort of tribute to comedies of the era--but the effort falls flat on its face, more than once. There's a prolonged Chicago bar fight late in the film that also goes limp as soon as the first punch in thrown. Clooney is a strong enough director to know this sort of thing isn't going to work, and for his efforts he comes across like an amateur. I know a lot of people on this planet don't like Zellweger, and I'm not exactly sure why. She's fantastic here as a woman who is only in her element when she's deeply out of her element. Clooney probably overestimates the interest audiences will have in the film's love triangle storyline, but Zellweger's fine performance keeps things hopping.

Still, I liked more of LEATHERHEADS than I disliked, I'm giving it a mild recommendation. I loved the look of the film, the attention to time-appropriate detail, and the way Clooney as an actor didn't fall back on his good looks and natural charm as often as he could have. Dodge is a worn-out player, and the years show on Clooney's face. I've grown to truly look forward to every project this guy is attached to, and I love that his next scheduled film as a director is a piece written by the Coen brothers. I can almost forgive the missteps he's made with LEATHERHEADS knowing that better things are to come.

Capone