The Leatherheads - Movie Review

I was kinda looking forward to The Leatherheads as it has two of my favourite actors, George Clooney and Renee Zellweger. I saw it over the weekend and quite liked it. It was pleasant surprise to know that George Clooney has directed it as well.

The movie is set in 1925. It seems that at the time, American Football was not very big on the pro level. It was played till college level but athletes did not see much potential after that. The movie starts with the sad state of affairs that Duluth Bulldogs (the team Jimmy "Dodge" Connolly - George Clooney belongs to) and other pro football teams are in. They don't have funds for anything, be it their contracts, venues, even sports gear. George Clooney hits upon the idea of hiring a star college football player called Carter Rutherford played by John Krasinski. Carter is a decorated war hero with tons of charisma and plays well too. Through him, Dodge hopes to revive pro football and attract enough fans to bring in the moolah. Renée Zellweger plays Lexie Littleton, an ambitious journalist who is given the task of uncovering Carter's past and exposing him as a fraud. The movie is all about how each of them pursue their own agenda while trying to push the other person down.

Now, I really like sports movie cause it is a winning formula. The team which is in focus will at least come up to the finals and win or lose, hey our team put up a brave fight. What I particularly liked about the movie was the witty dialogues between Dodge and Lexie. The chemistry between the two is also particularly good. The story has a few twists and moves along pretty fast. It's not nail biting stuff but a nice relaxing watch. Overall rating on the Mathew Rate-O-Meter 3 out of 5 stars.