Rating: 3 of 5  

The best thing about having seen Leatherheads is that now I get to post my Summer movie preview list.

The second best thing about Leatherheads is that it’s a great movie. It succeeds in doing everything it attempts, managing to be funny and witty, charming and clever, whimsical and fun to watch.

George Clooney as a director has a knack for giving his films a tone and feel of the period they’re set in. So Leatherheads captures the light hearted fun of the roaring twenties. Everything from the editing to the music has a sense of playfulness about it, especially a great bar room brawl.

The writing is witty and smart. I don’t know if anyone actually spoke like that back then, but it’s fun to think they did.

Rene Zellweger usually bothers me and she has her annoying moments in this film also. But she does well with the rapid fire glib of the twenties so there’s moments when I didn’t notice that she’s annoying.
Jim Krasinski is perfect as a charming all American hero. You still root for him no matter how annoyingly good the character seems. He’s sweet and endearing compared to George Clooney’s wizened, playfully scandalous charm.

Here’s the thing about it though… the defining characteristic of the twenties was their insatiable appetite for fun, for light hearted merriment after WW1. So, for a film to capture that sense of fun at a time when our nation’s morale isn’t at it’s highest is kind of perfect. It’s a movie about a certain time in history entering into a present that needs that same whimsy to lift our spirits.

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