Fever Pitch

The only reason I'm grudgingly giving this movie three stars instead of two is because it does not revolve around what the movie refers to as "one of god's most pathetic creatures--a Red Sox fan."

Make no mistake, this movie is a chick flick, albeit one of those relatively decent ones that guys like as well. I fully expected it to be terrible, yet despite my best efforts to hate it, I have to admit that I found it pretty entertaining. There were, of course, the inevitable "puke moments" where the non-Red Sox fans like myself rolled our eyes in disgust, but all in all this movie focuses almost entirely on the relationship between Lindsay (Drew Barrymore) and Ben (Jimmy Fallon), thereby saving the non-Nation fans the agony of more Red Sox worship. Drew Barrymore pulls off her usual irresistable, "I'm so cute" performance, and surprisingly enough Fallon doesn't annoy the crap out of you but instead portrays the likeable doofus rather well. The writers didn't drag out the romancy parts too much, and there are only one or two cheesy scenes (i.e. the scene from the previews where Ben "proposes" to Lindsay that she come to opening day with him).

So anyway, Lindsay first meets Ben just after the 2003 baseball season has ended, and thus falls in love with what she later dubs as "winter guy." This sets us up for "summer guy" who inevitably chooses the Red Sox over anything that Lindsay suggests, e.g. meeting her parents, going to her best friend's birthday party, and finally, skipping out on a weekend trip to Paris because Seattle is in town--the rationale for that last one being that the BoSox really need these wins as they are three games behind the Yankees. Well, ok but.... Seattle? Seattle?! First of all, during that particular season (2004), Seattle was the second or third worst team in all of MLB. Yes, they were god-awful that year, and hardly a threat. As a Cubs fan, I completely understand why it is difficult to miss any of those September games when you're a few games back (or even a few games up), but I wouldn't miss a free trip to Paris because, oh I don't know, Milwaukee (another non-threat) is in town that weekend. I mean honestly, why didn't they pick the Angels, Oakland A's, or hell even the Twins to conflict with the Paris weekend--it would be much more believable.

Aside from Ben's obsession with the team, there isn't much baseball-related subject matter. They cover the Curse of the Bambino in about 10 seconds, and they have a few scenes at Fenway during a few games here and there, but this movie is entirely about two things: a guy deciding what his priorities are when it comes to the Red Sox vs. Lindsay, and a woman trying to love someone who cannot give her the same love and devotion as he does to his beloved team. There are some terrific scenes that made me laugh aloud, and there is definitely some funny dialogue. Surprisingly there was no potty humor, given that this movie comes from the Farrelly brothers, but that's good because it wouldn't have worked in this film--yep, sorry no "hair gel" on the ear scene in this movie.

Really, I think that this was a good movie, and they chose to portray the type of Red Sox fan that everyone can respect and root for--the loyal die hard who loves his team more than life itself and is willing to share the miserable times as well as the amazing times. If they had portrayed that other, in-your-face, entitled, whiney, a-hole type, then I probably wouldn't have made it through the two hours without bashing in my head out of pure frustration. So, you know, yay for that and all.