Some movies just scream out "Love me! I need you to love me!" Watching a comedy that falls into this trap is grossly disappointing. Not only do the vast majority of the jokes tend to fall flat, but the performances, which are meant to be ingratiating, prove little more than grating. One of the most recent Hollywood films to fall into this trap, Leatherheads, arrived on DVD this week.

A period piece that plays out in the 1920s, the film stars and is directed by George Clooney. The story follows Jimmy 'Dodge' Connelly (Clooney) as he tries his best to turn professional football into a major sport instead of a minor attraction. His plan is relatively simple: collegiate football is hugely popular so by recruiting the game's biggest star and a hero of World War I, Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), Connelly believes that professional football will become popular as well. When he is promised a significant amount of the box office take, Rutherford - or more precisely his leech of an agent, C.C. Frazier (Jonathan Pryce) - accepts Connelly's offer.

Connelly's troubles don't end there, however, as a newspaper reporter, Lexie Littleton (Renée Zellweger), is trying to find corroboration for a tip she received that Carter's status as a war hero is undeserved. As Lexie pursues her story, Connelly and Carter pursue her, and both pursue dreams of football, and financial, glory.

The film not only takes place over a half-century ago, it also attempts to revive a style of comedy - screwball comedy - that was popular over a half-century ago. Leatherheads certainly attempts to infuse itself with elements of screwball comedy — there are attempts at witty repartee and slapstick, and the film certainly revolves around courtship — but all of these elements fall exceedingly flat. Virtually no joke in the film is funny, the "witty repartee" more often than not lacks any form of wit, and the courtship is both obvious in where it is heading and wholly unbelievable.

The three leads in the movie - Clooney, Krasinski, and Zellweger - are all hugely talented and have all performed far better in comedic roles in the past. Krasinki's performance is the best of the three, and much of that is due to the fact that his character is the most strait-laced. His main job is to be young and earnest and to let everything else happen around and to him. It was not his fault that he was made into a war hero, he can't help it if everyone in the country wants to see him play ball, and he's not orchestrating the various advertising campaigns that picture him. All of that is being done for and to him. He is just young, earnest Jim from The Office, except here he doesn't play as many practical jokes and can catch a football. Jim may be funnier than Carter, but the two are very similar.