'Leatherheads' just misses its comedic touchdown

With "Leatherheads," America's favorite movie star, George Clooney, makes a quantum leap from his dark, multi-Oscar-nominated, paranoid thriller "Michael Clayton" to a wacky screwball comedy set in the world of professional football in the '20s.

And though he's reasonably adorable and the film -- which he also directed -- has flair, polish and considerably more ambition and sophistication than the Hollywood norm, the truth is it hits the ground with a wee bit of a stumble.

For all its other virtues, the supporting casting is lackluster, the script never quite kicks into place as a sports movie and Clooney the director seems to lack the touch that might have set the proceedings on fire as a zany ensemble comedy.

Clooney plays Dodge Connolly, a mid-40ish pro football player for the Duluth Bulldogs, circa 1925, a primitive but pristine era when the sport is crude, anarchistic, unsullied by big money and -- with the fan base of Albanian Little League -- plagued by economic woes.

To save it from extinction, Dodge gets the brilliant idea of hiring a Princeton gridiron hero (John Krasinski), and ballyhooing him into a superstar attraction. In short, he decides to single-handedly create the kind of star-driven professional football we know today.

Conflict comes when a brash Chicago Tribune reporter (Renée Zellweger) gets close to the team and threatens to expose the new star's mystique as a WWI hero. As this all segues into pro football's first major scandal, and Dodge and his creation both fall for the sexy instigator.

Meanwhile, Randy Newman's bouncy score pushes the action and comedy with a merry determination, the visuals brim with nostalgic period flavor, and the lavish production values come together to paint an epic portrait of pro football in its goofy infancy.

Along the way, Clooney -- the master of self-deprecating humor -- makes his character (and his advancing age) the butt of every other joke. Most of the gags work, but the shtick is overdone and Clooney finally runs out of charming reactions to the world's abuse.

Also, the Clooney-Zellweger romantic chemistry is tepid, several stretches of the script seem tediously drawn-out and so many of the more elaborate screwball routines fall flat that the film never quite gets on a rollicking roll.