George Clooney’s latest venture behind the camera, the period sports comedy “Leatherheads,” has its moments – but it is a rather lightweight and forgettable project. I’m sure I was entertained at the time I watched the film, but honestly I can’t remember too much about the experience a mere two days later.

“Leatherheads” is set in the 1920s, the early days of professional football. Clooney plays Jimmy “Dodge” Connelly, a veteran football player hanging on in a fledgling pro league.

It appears as if Connelly’s playing days have come to an end when the team loses its sponsor and the entire league is on the verge of collapse.

Connelly comes up with an idea to breathe new life into the league, convincing a college football star and war hero named Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to put Princeton on hold and pursue a career in professional football.

Rutherford agrees and the game explodes, even more than Connelly could have imagined. Further complicating the situation is the arrival of an aggressive female journalist (Renee Zellwegger) determined to shatter Rutherford’s Golden Boy persona.

The film does have its moments and plenty of witty banter, especially between Clooney and Zellwegger, but it pails in comparison to another period farce piece now in theaters “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.”

My biggest problem with “Leatherheads” is it feels overstuffed, with the film drastically shifting focus off the field in the middle third only to realize it has gone astray right before the final act.

When “Leatherheads” focuses on the gridiron, it is slightly amusing and worth your time, but once it gets into a romantic triangle involving the three leads “Leatherheads” feels like any other tired romantic comedy.

It’s a credit to Clooney, Zellwegger and Krasinski that the material works as well as it does. This could have easily been a dreadful experience, but it manages to be mildly entertaining.

Just not entertaining enough to matter by the time the summer movies start to arrive three weeks from now.

DVD dandy of the week

This week’s dandy is “There Will Be Blood” (A), writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s challenging adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel “Oil.”

Anchored by a superb performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, “Blood” is a brilliant look at capitalism and the depths one man would go to succeed.

Day-Lewis plays Daniel Plainview, a prospector at the turn of the century who begins as a silver miner, but eventually turns his attention to the oil boom.

When Plainview gets a tip that there is a small town where an ocean of oil is oozing out of the ground, he heads there with his son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) looking to increase his fortunes exponentially.

Once he arrives in the town, Plainview develops a rivalry with a charismatic young preacher named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) that eventually builds to a surprising conclusion.

“Blood” is an amazing study of greed and corruption, expertly crafted by Anderson. The cinematography is breathtaking and the score by Jonny Greenwood is mesmerizingly original (too bad it got disqualified from the Oscars due to a technicality).

Dano is surprisingly effective, but the film belongs to Day-Lewis, who gave hands-down the single most astonishing performance of any actor in 2007 and was rewarded in February with an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Plainview is not the least bit sympathetic, but Day-Lewis keeps the character interesting, even if some of his actions are rather difficult to watch.

The film has garnered a lot of love and hate, with most of the emotion centering on a wildly out-there final act. While I can understand the frustration, I have to say I absolutely loved the conclusion, because it chose to leap outside the box and not give a standard Hollywood conclusion.

It’s that kind of vision that has really made me a fan of Anderson. The 37-year-old filmmaker went five years between projects. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another five years for Anderson to build on his already staggeringly outstanding resume.

“There Will Be Blood” is rated R for some violence and is now available on DVD.

— Sportswriter/movie reviewer Micheal Compton, whose memoirs will form the basis of a romantic comedy tentatively titled “Watch With Me: A Tale of B-Movie Love,” can be reached for comment by e-mailing mcompton@bgdailynews.com.