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Between notes on The 400 Blows and (d.v.) Metropolis, I thought I would fulfill one of the objectives of this thing and mention a movie we just saw in the theater: Leatherheads. George Clooney clearly enjoyed his work with the Coens on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Intolerable Cruelty, and he decided to do his own send-up of goofy-but-intelligent comedy. He even added fellow veteran of that genre Rene Zellweger (i.e. Down With Love) and the “cute” guy from The Office. If it seems inane to be talking about the actors in a movie, that’s because there isn’t a lot left to discuss. Clooney made it plain that a major influence of his in directing and (supposedly) writing this movie was His Girl Friday and other such 30′s fast-talking films. Leatherheads had moments in it that tried very hard to mimic those old Grant-Hepburn dialogues, and they failed something terrible. It tried hard to be funny, but it just wasn’t. The exaggerated expressions and dialogue only work if the script is well-written. All in all, it seemed an awfully superficial attempt to find a genre – sports, comedy, 30′s, whatever. Even the images were repetitive and uncreative. I’m not going to burn more time on it.
So many movies have tried to copy the films of the 30s, with varying degrees of success…The Hudsucker Proxy comes to mind–such a sad, shameless ripoff of every movie Frank Capra ever made (imho–my mom loves it).
Interesting. Hudsucker is on my list. My understanding from its cult followers is that it does better to reinvent the Capra comedies than to mimic them. Then again, some movies have limited appeal for a reason (e.g. Rocky Horror Picture Show).