Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch is a romantic comedy based on a novel by Nick Hornby, who also wrote About a Boy and High Fidelity, and it's worth noting because though he didn't adapt them for the big screen, there's something common to them, which I can't quite describe, but it's there, and I could feel it constantly while watching his latest, the Farrelly Brothers directed Fever Pitch.

Now this is actually a remake from the 1997 British movie of the same based on the same book (though that one was actually adapted by Hornby) about soccer. This time around, writer Lowell Ganz adapted the story for the States and made it about baseball, rewriting the ending after the Red Sox won the World Series last year.
So we have Lindsay (played very cutely though nothing remarkable by Drew Barrymore) falling in love with 9th grade teacher Ben, only to find out afterwards about his sick passion (justified though) for the Boston Red Sox. "His apartment is like a gift shop", she says at one point. And it doesn't stop there, as he even has season tickets (for two) right behind home base and he never misses one game, previously sharing them with his friends (Willie Garson and Armando Griesco, who have to win the right to go to the games they want) and now sharing them with Lindsay who must balance her career (where she's trying to land a big promotion) and her new almost daily appointment of following the Red Sox.

Jimmy Fallon plays Ben, and as I write this I can already imagine all you remembering Taxi, and automatically eliminating any chance of going to see this movie, but please don't. Try to remember the great work Fallon did in Saturday Night Live, and the promise he showed with just little parts in Almost Famous and Anything Else a few years ago. Please try, because he's great here. And it's no secret he can nail the comedic scenes, but he's also great in the few dramatic pieces, and I give credit to Hornby and his writing for this.

Now, shouldn't I be giving credit for the actor's performance's to the director? And in this case directors, the comedy genius Peter and Bobby Farrelly, who brought us Dumb & Dumber, Kingpin, There's Something About Mary, Me, Myself & Irene, Shallow Hal, and Stuck on You? All great and most even classic comedies? Well, the answer is no, because I wouldn't know they directed the movie unless it wasn't on the credits (and props to a friend that pointed out how the commercials barely say its a Farrelly Bros movie). There's nothing about them here. Not one scene that could make me say it's from them. And I should say that this makes no difference, as the movie works perfectly anyway.

So overall I'm surprised, because the movie is really good, and it's great that the ones that get to see it will see that Jimmy Fallon is actually good (despite Taxi), even great here, he has great chemistry with Drew Barrymore, the rest of the cast is very good too, and it all makes for a really good story that everybody should give it a chance.