Movie Review: Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch (2005) 

Directed by Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly 

Written by Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel 

Starring Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, JoBeth Williams

Release Date April 8th, 2005 

Published April 7th, 2005 

Peter Farrelly is a huge Boston Red Sox fan and has been since he was a kid growing up in the tiny state of Rhode Island. When he and his brother, and producing partner, Bobby moved to Los Angeles Bobby became a Dodger fan and Peter remained loyal to the Sox. Through Bucky Dent in '78, Buckner in '86 and Bret 'freakin' Boone in 2002 Peter lived and died by the Red Sox.

So it must have been an extraordinary experience for Peter when while shooting his latest film Fever Pitch ,a romantic comedy about an obsessed Red Sox fan's first real relationship, that he was allowed to shoot the movie in and around Boston and in the cathedral of Fenway park and all while the real Red Sox were making their historic run to break Babe Ruth's curse. Call it fate or serendipity or just dumb luck, not only was Peter Farrelly on the field when the Sox won the series, he shot a terrific movie while he was there.

Fever Pitch stars Jimmy Fallon as a lifetime Red Sox fan named Ben. His uncle took him to Fenway as a 7 year-old kid and he's never left. Inheriting his Uncle's season tickets right on the first base line Ben has developed a second family with the other lifetime Sox fans and been there through the hard times. Ben's apartment is a shrine to his obsession filled to overflow with memorabilia, jerseys and posters.

Naturally, women have tended to find Ben's Red Sox passion a bit of a turn-off.  He's never had a serious relationship that lasted past Spring training. That changes however when he meets Lindsey (Drew Barrymore) a just reached thirty workaholic who thinks she can take Ben's Red Sox fandom in stride if he can accept how much she works. Lindsey, however, greatly underestimates just how obsessive being a Red Sox fan can be, especially when the Sox are in the playoffs.

Drew Barrymore could do this material in her sleep. While Reese Witherspoon and Meg Ryan openly campaigned to be the new Julia Roberts, Drew has crafted the most Julia-esque career. A career filled with solid light hearted romantic comedies that make big money. The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, and Never Been Kissed are not ground breaking cinema but they are solid mainstream entertainments that showcase her unique brand of sweet, slapstick goofiness and innocent sexuality.

As for Jimmy Fallon, he has not exactly set the world on fire in his few attempts at big screen stardom. In fact, after last years atrocious action comedy Taxi I wanted to set him on fire. In Fever Pitch Fallon greatly improves over that performance (how could he not?) thanks mostly to the believability and heartfelt acting of Drew Barrymore and the pitch perfect script by the Farrelly Brothers.

Fever Pitch is superbly crafted to grab both male and female audiences with its perfect mixture of light romance and sports fanaticism. To even the appeal of the film between men and women, the Farrelly Brothers have even toned down their usual brand of gross out humor for a more traditional form of romantic comedy. This is a more mainstream, less abrasive comedy than anything the Farrelly's have done before. Don't worry though, the brothers have not forgotten the hardcore fans.

In Fever Pitch the Farrelly Brothers have replaced their usual brand of gross out humor with Three Stooges style light violence; no one really gets hurt but it looks like it. Lindsey gets beaned in the head by a foul ball, one of Lindsey's friends is slightly hurt when Lindsey drops her while she is climbing a rock wall in a gym and, in the films, climax Lindsey plays cat and mouse with Fenway security after dropping off the centerfield wall. These moments of cartoon paroxysm are sprinkled throughout Fever Pitch just to remind you that this is still a Farrelly Brothers film.

The script is based on a novel written by Nick Hornby about an obsessive soccer fan. All the Farrelly's had to do was take out some of the drinking and all of the riots, change sports and move it to Boston, the one place in America where Baseball obsession could come close to the kind of loyalty shown by British soccer hooligans. Then they added some of their trademark over-the-top humor and a nearly perfect mainstream comedy is born.