Review of Fever Pitch (1985) by Ola G — 07 Apr 2017

Ben Wrightman, a 7-year-old boy, is going to a Red Sox game with his Uncle Carl. His uncle, who had no children of his own, treated Ben like a son. A narration explains that on that day, Ben became a die-hard Red Sox fan. Just about everything he owns bears the Red Sox name, emblem, or image of a Red Sox player (with the exception of his toilet paper, which bears the New York Yankees insignia). Ben inherited his uncle's season tickets when Carl died. The story picks up 23 years later with Ben (Jimmy Fallon) as a school teacher who is immature for his age. He meets Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore), a professionally successful workaholic executive. When Ben first asks her out, Lindsey rejects him, but she later changes her mind and agrees to go out with him. On their first date, Ben finds Lindsey very sick and vomiting. She has food poisoning from a new restaurant where she had dined earlier that day. Ben decides to spend the night and take care of her, as well as clean up her bathroom (whimsically telling her it was the "Vomit Elves" that did the work). The next morning, Lindsey, feeling better, finds Ben sleeping on her couch. Ben awakens, and he and Lindsey end up developing a romantic relationship. Overcoming her initial hesitance, Lindsey becomes attracted to Ben because of his ability to show passionate commitment to something. That spring, he later pretends he is proposing to her but instead asks her to the Red Sox Opening Day, where Stephen King (a longtime Sox fan) throws the first pitch. Lindsey attends, but not being a baseball or Red Sox fan, she knows nothing about the Curse of the Bambino or even how to pronounce the name Yastrzemski. The two continue attending the games together until one summer night when Lindsey attempts to catch up on work by taking her laptop to the game. Not paying attention to the game, she is knocked out by a line drive foul ball by then Baltimore Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada off Mike Myers (which ends up making the late night sports highlight reel). She eventually recovers but stops going to the games. Things take a turn for the worse when Lindsey invites Ben to accompany her to Paris, and he declines the offer because the Red Sox are in the heat of the playoff race. Will Ben´s obessions with the Boston Red Sox finally destroy his relationship with Lindsey?...

"Fever Pitch" is loosely based on author Nick Hornby's autobiographical essay "Fever Pitch" tackling his fanatical obsession with Arsenal while growing up. The movieversion came out in 1997 starring Colin Firth. "Fever Pitch" is a dimwitted remake to be honest were the focus has been switched to the US and baseball instead of England and soccer. I really like Jimmy Fallon in his role today as the host of "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" but he has never been a strong actor and this is yet another example of that, as he is not really convincing as the obsessed Ben. Drew Barrymore is adorable, but just like Fallon she has never been a great actress. She always ends up typecasted in the same sort of roles and you never believe her characters either. And with the Farrelly brothers, kings toilet humour, behind the direction the film hardly becomes something worth watching. For being European I do like baseball, but the game never becomes intresting in "Fever Pitch" either, and yet that is the main pillar in the film. This just has to be seen as a "ball".