A film
review by James Berardinelli for ReelViews.net
I will be
surprised if this film does well in New York City. Yankees fans, accustomed to
success, are still smarting from last year's humiliating debacle, and a romantic
comedy that capitalizes on the Red Sox's triumph is unlikely to pack theaters
in the Five Boroughs.
Fever Pitch is a curious mix of smarts and
schmaltz. The unusual combination derives from the group of creative
collaborators involved in the film's development. The Farrelly Brothers (Bobby and Peter), operating outside of There's Something About Mary territory,
prove that they are as capable of bringing a generic, formulaic romantic comedy
to the screen as they are of producing something more edgy. (Only one scene –
involving vomit and a dog – can be called a Farrelly
moment.) The screenwriters are the team of Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, who have elevated fake
sentimentality to a high art. Their tendency towards artificiality is mitigated
somewhat by the fact that they're adapting from a book by Nick Hornby (who retains an Executive Producer credit).
As I have
often said, the key to a romantic comedy working is often whether the
filmmakers invest the audience in the plight of the main characters. Do we have
a rooting interest in these two getting together? This is something the
Farrellys accomplish. And, considering that the male lead is played by the
insufferable Jimmy Fallon, that may
be a more significant achievement that it appears to be at first glance. Drew Barrymore has proven herself in
this genre but it takes a shift of perspective to pull for someone as
inherently irritating as Fallon. To his credit, the ex-SNL player hides most of
his rough edges and manages only to aggravate when he's trying too hard to get
a laugh. His slapstick scenes aren't just unfunny, they are embarrassing. But
the Farrellys keep these to a minimum. Fallon is otherwise palatable, and we
believe in his relationship with Barrymore's character.
Fever Pitch is the meet cute/fall in love/break
up/happily ever after story of Lindsey (Barrymore) and Ben (Fallon). (Did you
expect the movie to take some other path?) Their first encounter occurs when
Ben, a math teacher, brings a group of select students to meet Lindsey, a high-profile
executive who does something with numbers (her exact job description is left
vague). Ben is attracted to her, and timorously asks her out, only to be
rebuffed. Afterwards, Lindsey realizes that she may have made a mistake. Ben
isn't like her past boyfriends, but that could be a good thing. Maybe what she
needs is a nice guy, not someone driven by corporate ambition. So she calls him
back and tells him she has changed her mind. For most of the winter, the
blossoming relationship moves along smoothly, but, come March, Lindsey
discovers that she has a rival for Ben's affections - Spring Training. Ben
isn't just a Boston Red Sox fan, he is a Rabid Red Sox Follower. Suddenly,
Lindsey finds herself planning events and trips around Red Sox home games, and
begins to wonder whether Ben values the team more than he values her.
The film
provides each character with three or four friends as a support group, but none
of these characters is sufficiently developed to warrant more than a passing
mention. In fact, if one of Lindsey's gal pals looks familiar, that's because
she's played by one-time it girl Ione Sky, the object of John Cusack's
obsession in Say Anything... (1989).
In Fever Pitch, the only ones who
really matter are Lindsey and Ben - and, of course, the 25 players comprising
the 2004 World Series Champions Red Sox, a few of whom make actual appearances
rather than just showing up in game archive footage.
Sports
widows will probably relate to Lindsey's plight, and long-suffering fans of
many teams will see reflections of themselves in Ben. Of course, having won the
2004 World Series, the first one since 1918, Boston Red Sox fans really can no
longer consider themselves long-suffering.
The intelligent aspect of Fever Pitch's
script comes from the way it balances its various elements. Ben is shown to be
extreme, but the film never openly mocks sports addicts. Ben's love of the Red
Sox is not belittled, and Lindsey tries her best to accommodate him. It's only
when he turns nasty as a result of it that she has difficulty coping.
Reality,
it seems, forced a re-write of the film's ending. Handled better, the have your cake and eat it too resolution
might have been more satisfying, but the finale seems rushed. Having had the
actors and a few cameras at the Red Sox's first World Series victory since 1918
might have seemed like manna from heaven, but whatever footage the Farrellys
captured is underused. Everyone except Yankees fans will feel shortchanged.
And, with George Steinbrenner paying ever-steeper payrolls, they'll probably
have their own feel-good story to tell in the near-future. [Berardinelli’s
rating: *** out of 4 stars]
Blogger’s
comment: The Boston Red Sox won World Series titles in 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916
and 1918, and then sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees and began what was to
be an 86 year drought, called the Curse
of the Bambino. Then, in 2002, the Oakland Athletics’ manager Billy Beane
began to use methods of statistical analysis to evaluate players and build a
team, as described in Michael Lewis’ book and film Moneyball. The 2002 Athletics set a record of 20 consecutive wins,
but failed to make the World Series. Red Sox principal owner John Henry offered
Billy Beane $12.5 million to manage the 2003 Red Sox, but Beane declined.
Regardless, the Red Sox began to use the statistical analysis principles
described in Moneyball and two years
later, in 2004, won the World Series. Since then they have won the World Series
three more times, in 2007, 2013 and 2018, and now, virtually every franchise in
professional sports – Major League Baseball, NFL Football, NBA Basketball – use
the principles set forth in Moneyball.
Labels:
baseball, comedy, drama, history, romance
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