Hundreds of times it has already been noticed (and not by me alone) that domestic distributors are a special kind of people. I sometimes doubt they're human, really. If with the directorial debut of Clooney “Confessions of a dangerous man” distributors screwed up slightly, then there is a complete failure. Who, tell me, in his right mind and clear memory would think of translating "Leatherheads" as "Love is beyond the rules"? So I imagine the disappointment of people who went to another romantic comedy, and saw on the screen Clooney and Co., acting at first glance as if they pretty much too much punch.
Youth is a vice that passes very quickly.
With great pleasure, I noted for myself that Clooney, the director, has one characteristic feature in the second film I saw - irony, and sometimes the most powerful self-irony erupts. Ironically over his own directing, Clooney seems to relieve himself of responsibility, saying that all this is not serious - so, trifles. In fact, the film is not trivial at all. It’s not a sports drama, but it’s definitely not a comedy. Most likely, this film can be attributed to many genres at once, and not to any one particular.
The spirit of the times, the style of America of the 20-30s, with its “dry law”, with its great undertakings, are very skillfully sustained and, perhaps, not quite accurately (I am not a historian), but truthfully. A bright saturated picture is superimposed in this film on a not bad, not secondary in nature plot, which, if not shining with brilliant originality, then clearly did not have time to fade.
It's twenty-five years old, there are no rules. Except for one: “Men under 40 are wild bores, and after 40 are unbearable bores.”
Actors are on a level, too. Clooney himself is good, his ideological opponent is also very good. Well, Renee Zellweger, who sometimes just infuriates me with her crunches, was very organic and elegant here.
American football is shown at its dawn, at the time of becoming one of the most popular games in the world. “Love Out of the Rules” is, of course, inferior to “The Longest Yard” with Adam Sandler in terms of drawing and detailing the game, but Clooney’s film has its own special flavor.
It's a pity we know each other, otherwise we could get along.
Dialogue. Perhaps one of the main advantages of the film. Especially the dialogue between Clooney and Zellweger. Sharp, fresh, ironic, prickly, playful.
8 out of 10