Watch the trailer: http://movies.aol.com/movie/leatherheads/27495/main
This movie easily passed the Mom Test as well as for us. Normally my wife & I don't go to the theater to see comedies, especially ones that center around sports. But Mom, who will be 90 this week, needed her Clooney fix and there was nothing else playing nearby that would appeal to all of us. Before you think we were condescending to Mom's taste, let me say that Leatherheads was a funny movie about football circa 1925 and will appeal to other non-football fans like me.
Clooney also directed it as well as starring in it. He is generous in not hogging all the good, snappy dialogue and laughs. Rene Zellweger, John Krasinski, and the rest of the cast all have nice moments among the plentiful peppering of sight gags. This film projects a cozy feeling for the post WW1 years with the visuals bathed in warm colors to accentuate the period details. The old songs and new music provided by Randy Newman (who has a cameo as a piano player in the bar brawl scene) help move the plot along.
You can read a better synopsis with the trailer than mine since I was distracted a lot by a woman seated behind me with her noisy candy wrappers. The story will remind you of the screwball comedy/romances from the '30's & '40's and that's intentional on the filmmakers' design. If you're going to copy, better to do it from the best and do it well. That seems to be the lesson here. They all appear to enjoy their work and you will too.
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