Leatherheads
Leatherheads is a romantic comedy set in 1925 during the early days of pro football. This was before Kevlar and faceguards when the only headgear was a pretty flimsy leather helmet thus the title. This was also long before million dollar signing bonuses and even though college football drew big crowds, at the professional level it seemed to have no future. George Clooney as smooth as ever plays Jimmy 'Dodge' Connelly a middle aged pro with no other marketable skills so when his team folds he dreams up a desperate scheme to get the best college player, Carter Rutherford into the pros. John Krasinski with much of the same boyish charm that makes him so endearing on TV in The Office plays Carter. Both he and Dodge fall for Renée Zellweger’s character Lexie Littleton, a wise cracking reporter looking for dirt in the irritatingly perfect Carter. What saves this movie is the well timed witty dialogue between Lexie and Dodge but even though Leatheheads is a movie about football it’s not a football movie. The action is minimal except for the speed with which the game goes from bust to boom which seems unlikely.