Fever Pitch (PG-13)

Bobby and Peter Farrelly have wracked up a pretty decent following in Hollywood. Directors of such movies as “There’s Something About Mary,” “Kingpin,” and “Me, Myself, and Irene,” the brothers have shown their ability in crafting comedic and audience pleasing yarns. Typically their movies are more on the slapstick, over-the-top variety (Jim Carrey foaming at the mouth in “My, Myself, and Irene;” Cameron Diaz styling her hair with ‘hair gel’ in “There’s something About Mary”).  However, change is unavoidable, and this is apparent in the lower key but nonetheless pleasing “Fever Pitch.” 

One of the strong points of the movie is in the casting of Jimmy Fallon in its lead role. Fallon plays the affable Ben Wrightman, a Red Sox-loving middle-school teacher, and hits all the right notes as a sympathetic character. He’s funny, but not too funny, and comes off as more leading man than loveable loser. Through Ben we learn all about the lugubrious Redsox, from their 86-year losing streak, to their list of injured players, to their penultimate burden, “The Curse of the Babino.”

Ben’s story is as follows: His uncle loved the Red Sox, and after his death left Ben lifetime season tickets to the ‘Sox’ – much to the glee of his three friends whom Ben takes to all the games with him. Ben has all the respect, and friendship he could want. His friends love him, and his students adore him. However, one thing was missing – something which his obsession with the Red Sox has always sabotaged – anything that resembles a love life.

However, this all changes when he meets Lindsey (Drew Barrymore; Barrymore co-produced the movie) an uber-successful executive for a high-profile firm whom Ben meets while taking his honors students on a tour to meet a live-professional in the field of mathematics. Ambivalent at first, she agrees to go out with Ben. Quickly the two fall into a whirlwind romance. However, it isn’t long before Lindsey finds it harder and harder to share Ben with his other love – the Red Sox.

What “Fever Pitch” does that is often missing from many romantic comedies is to develop both of its leads rather well, instead of brushing them over with good looks and stereotypes. Ben is more an everyman than sex-icon, and Barrymore, beautiful in her own right, comes off more as a real woman than ‘the perfect girl.’ Fallon and Barrymore have great chemistry together on-screen, and this adds to the believability of their romance, particularly when the going gets rough.

Barrymore’s Lindsey is also more of an active participant in the movie than others of its type. When she knows what she wants, she goes after it (one scene involving her being dropped to the field during game 4 of the playoffs against the Yankees is a thankful departure from the male monopolizing the ‘embarrassing declaration of love’ at the end of rom-coms, and makes for one of the best scenes in the movie).

As is the case with most movies of this kind, supporting characters (such as KaDee Strickland and Evan Helmuth) aren’t as defined as the two leads, but doesn’t take away from the movie at all. Unlike modern comedies, such as “No Strings Attached,” the friends of Lindsey and Ben aren’t toxic. They exist in a world where criticizing your friend when they’re wrong, just as taking care of them when they’re sick, fall into the realm of friend duties – not to be chucked when your bud’s going through a rough time.

“Fever Pitch” may surprise you. It’s such a departure in what we’ve come to expect from romantic comedies that it’s hard to label. It’s Farrelly brothers through and through, but not in the way we’re used to seeing. Its characters are fun, yet somehow real, and at the end of the movie you’re left with the impression that the movie was about more than its two leads, but about the love that Boston has for its ill-fated team just as much. It’s ending may be predictable, but let’s face it – people watch these types of movies to see a happy ending. And the Farrelly brothers deliver just that.

Apart from a good story and good acting, “Fever Pitch” is just fun to watch. But part of the remarkableness of the movie is the history that it helped create. During the filming of the movie in 2004, the Red Sox starting playing really well, so much so that Producer Bradley Thomas asked the Farrelly brothers ‘what would happen if the Red Sox actually won?’ Superstitious at first, the brothers had to entertain the prospect that it might actually happen after 86 years of failure. In a rush, they cancelled a day of filming, flew to St. Louis, and managed to capture the footage of the Red Sox actually winning the World Series, complete with Barrymore and Fallon on the field. In the words of Bobby Farrelly, the event was ‘serendipitous.’

– by Mark Ziobro