Leatherheads

Aroview: The debonair George Clooney directs and stars in this charming 1920s comedy as a player-coach who gets caught up with a plucky journalist (Zellweger) after recruiting a war hero to his fading American football team.

Sprinkled in twinkle-eyed nostalgia for the feisty comedies of Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges, this is a pleasantly diverting period pastiche that benefits from the sharp repartee and sweetly saucy chemistry between Clooney and Zellweger, but is slightly blunted by indecisive direction and an overlong running time.