Fever Pitch: Movie & DVD Review (2005) by Christopher Smith

(Originally published 2005)

The funny comedy, “Fever Pitch,” comes from the Farrelly Brothers, makers of “There’s Something About Mary,” “Dumb & Dumber,” “Osmosis Jones” and “Stuck on You,” but don’t let that encourage you if you’re a fan--or discourage you if you aren’t.

The film finds the Farrellys leaving behind their trademark gas-and-gross-out gags in favor of something more traditional--romance. The purest kind.

Okay, so not always so pure. There is, for instance, a scene in which poor Drew Barrymore, looking better than ever, vomits uncontrollably after eating spoiled food. But the Farrellys, embracing something that borders on restraint (at least for them), allow the vomiting to occur offscreen.

Sure, we hear Barrymore gurgle and belch as she tosses her lunch, but the Farrellys don’t subject us to the remains of that lunch. We never see it--and when it comes to these two, who created a pop-altering sensation with their infamous hair gel scene in “Mary,” that’s something of a leap forward, to say the least.

Loosely adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel about a man obsessed with soccer, “Fever Pitch” is about love--love for the game of baseball, specifically the Red Sox, and the love that grows between Barrymore’s Lindsay Meeks, a corporate executive on the climb, and Jimmy Fallon’s Ben Wrightman, a high school teacher and Red Sox fanatic.

Let’s define fanatic. For Ben, it means he has attended every single Red Sox home game for the past 20-plus years in the choice seats his uncle left him at Fenway. It also means he sleeps on Red Sox sheets, drinks from Red Sox mugs, wears Red Sox underwear and uses Yankee toilet paper just so he can rub in the point of how he feels about that team.

Obviously, there is a downside to such obsession and for Ben, it’s this--by spending so much time rooting for the Sox, he has yet to connect long-term with anyone save for a few male friends, also Sox fanatics.

Likeable as he is, the man is emotionally stunted, his priorities screwed up. Outside of his unwavering love for the Red Sox, he has yet to have a significant love affair--and where has that gotten him? As once character succinctly puts it, “the Sox have never loved you back, Ben.”

As written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, “Pitch Perfect” rides the rails of formula, offers few surprises and leans hard on last year’s Sox series win to give it a final lift. Still, I enjoyed it. Throughout, the writing is solid and often clever, the chemistry between Barrymore and Fallon is undeniable, you come to care for the characters, which is key, and the robust, wholly unbelievable ending is earned. Are there better reasons to like a movie?

Not where this one is concerned.

Grade: A-