Fever Pitch (2005 film)
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| Fever Pitch | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for Fever Pitch |
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| Directed by | Farrelly Brothers |
| Produced by | Nancy Juvonen |
| Written by | Nick Hornby (novel) Lowell Ganz (screenplay) |
| Starring | Drew Barrymore Jimmy Fallon |
| Music by | Craig Armstrong |
| Cinematography | Greg Le Duc Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Editing by | Alan Baumgarten |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | April 8, 2005 |
| Running time | 103 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Fever Pitch, which was released as The Perfect Catch outside of the United States and Canada, is a Farrelly Brothers comedy film. It is a remake of a 1997 British film of the same name, and is loosely based on the Nick Hornby book Fever Pitch, a best-selling memoir in the UK. While both the book and the original 1997 film are about Football (soccer), this version, aimed at the US market, is about baseball. The film opened in theaters on April 8, 2005.
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[edit] Plot
The movie begins with Ben Wrightman (played by Jimmy Fallon as an adult) as a 7 year old going to a Red Sox game with his Uncle Carl. His uncle treated him like a son because he had no kids of his own. Ever since that day, Ben became a die-hard Red Sox fan. Just about everything he owns is Red Sox. Ben inherited his uncle's season tickets when he died. The story picks up 23 years later when Ben is now a school teacher and is still rather immature for his age. He later meets Lindsay Meeks (Drew Barrymore), an executive who is workaholic. She becomes attracted to him because he's able to show a passionate committment. That spring, he later pretends he is proposing to her, but asks her to the Red Sox home opener. Lindsay, not being anywhere near the sports fan he is, doesn't even know about the Curse of the Bambino or even how to pronounce Yastremski. The two continue to attend the games together until one night in the summer when Lindsay, who has a lot of work to catch up on takes her laptop to the game, and after not paying attention, gets knocked out by the flyball. She's okay, but stops going to the games. Things take a turn for the worse when Lindsay invited Ben to go with her to Paris and he rejects the offer because the Red Sox are in the heat of the playoff race. While she is in Paris, she finds out she is pregnant with his child. Lindsay becomes fed up with Ben's obsession with the Red Sox. Ben agrees to miss a game against the Yankees to go with Lindsay to her friend's birthday party. However after he gets back, his friend Troy calls him to tell him that the Red Sox overcame a seven run deficit to beat them. Ben becomes irate and he and Lindsay separate for awhile. Ben later misses Lindsay's company so much that he plans to sell his season tickets. Lindsay finds out that he plans to do this when she is out celebrating her promotion. She then rushes to the ballpark to try to stop him. She gets in during the 8th innning of the Red Sox vs. Yankees playoff game when the Sox are just 3 outs away from being swept. Because Ben has no cell phone and the guy he is selling his tickets to refuses to answer, she illegally runs across the field just in time for him to agree to keep his tickets. The two reunite and kiss in front of the entire crowd. The movie ends with the Red Sox winning that game and beating the Yankees three more times and later sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis for their first World Series title in 86 years.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Drew Barrymore | Lindsey Meeks |
| Jimmy Fallon | Ben Wrightman |
| Jason Spevack | Ben in 1980 |
| Jack Kehler | Al |
| Scott Severance | Artie |
| Jessamy Finet | Theresa |
| Maureen Keiller | Viv |
| Lenny Clarke | Uncle Carl |
| Ione Skye | Molly |
| KaDee Strickland | Robin |
| Marissa Jaret Winokur | Sarah |
| Evan Helmuth | Troy |
| Brandon Craggs | Casey |
| Brett Murphy | Ryan |
| Danielle Letendre | Audrey |
| JoBeth Williams | Maureen Meeks |
[edit] Critical reception
The movie has a 63% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a rating of 56 from Metacritic. Sportswriter (and passionate Red Sox fan) Bill Simmons has been particularly critical of the film, even dedicating one of his columns to criticizing it.[1] Among his complaints: the movie paints a stereotypical and untrue picture of pessimistic Red Sox fans (he claims that few fans believe in the Curse of the Bambino, and that having characters talk about it ruins the film's credibility) and that filming on the field during the post-World Series celebration shows a lack of respect by the directors.
From a cinematographic and literary perspective, the film received some favourable criticism from experts Roger Ebert[2] and James Berardinelli.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Simmons, Bill. Down with a bad 'Fever'. ESPN Page 2. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "Fever Pitch by Roger Ebert", RogerEbert.com, Chicago Sun-Times, 2005-04-08. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
- ^ Berardinelli, James. "Fever Pitch - A Film Review by James Berardinelli", ReelViews.com, 2005. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Fever Pitch (2005) at the Internet Movie Database
- Fever Pitch at the Baseball Movie Guide
