George Clooney likes to make 'em like they used to. Whether he's recreating McCarthy-era paranoia with 2005's brilliant "Good Night, and Good Luck", knocking off classic noir with his buddy Steven Soderbergh in 2006's "The Good German", remaking a cold war classic with the 2000 TV-movie "Fail Safe" or harking back to 70s anti-hero thrillers with "Michael Clayton", Mr. Clooney has proven himself time and again to have a discerning cinematic palette. With "Leatherheads", a goofy ode to the origins of professional football, Mr. Clooney directs, produces and stars in what is essentially an old-fashioned screwball comedy. And it's a pretty good one at that.

The year is 1925, the days of speakeasys, The Charleston and words like "moxie". College football is popular, but a professional version of the game hasn't quite found its, well, footing. Dodge Connelly (Mr. Clooney) plays football for the Duluth Bulldogs - a typically ragtag team hovering one game away from going under. When the inevitable finally happens, Dodge takes matters into his own hands, raising the money to draft popular college player (and war hero) Carter "The Bullet" Rutherford to play for Duluth. Hot on the trail of the story is (what else?) a spunky reporter named Lexie (no relation to our own Ms. Feinberg, of course - not with that spelling anyway).

As Lexie, Ms. Zellweger isn't quite as miscast as she has sometimes been. She has a playfulness that works for the character, but her trademark perma-squint is replaced here by a smirk which becomes equally grating over time. Jon Krasinski, from American TV's "The Office", plays Carter. After 2007's Robin Williams mug-fest, "License to Wed", Mr. Krasinski's big-screen potential is still up for grabs, but he's appropriately boyishly charming when he needs to be. But it's Mr. Clooney who runs the show as Dodge. Continuing to fulfill his promise to be the next Cary Grant, the actor's loose charisma is in top form. He embraces the role of this past-his-prime footballer; this is an actor that has the confidence to be called "grandpa" on multiple occasions.

No, they don't make 'em like this anymore. Of course, when they did, they weren't this long; "Leatherheads" could use some trimming (Mr. Clooney has had trouble with editing in the past), but the characters are fun and the script by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly has more inspired touches than you might expect (particularly a narrow escape from the cops, and the true story of how Carter became a war hero). As screwball comedies go, "Leatherheads" won't stand up against classics like "The Philadelphia Story", "Bringing Up Baby" or "His Girl Friday" - all of which star Cary Grant and some of which clearly serve as inspiration here. But "Leatherheads", with its jazzy soundtrack and playful, bloodless fisticuffs, is a welcome respite from most else in multiplexes this season. That George Clooney - he's got a lotta moxie.