Fever Pitch (1997) and Fever Pitch (2005) (review)
by MaryAnn Johanson
There’s Something About Baseball
But you’d be forgiven for not be able to determine what that something is from Fever Pitch. I could not possibly care less about soccer (what the rest of the world calls football) than I already do, but the 1997 British film Fever Pitch made me understand and appreciate the passion devoted football fans feel in a way that the American-
If the word “pitch” weren’t coincidentally associated with both football and baseball, allowing the producers of this new film to retain the title, you’d never know there was any relationship between the two films. It’s only in the barest of descriptions that they demonstrate any similarity at all: a guy who’s a fanatical supporter of a professional sports team falls for a girl who just doesn’t get it. One film is a subtle, delightful exploration of the touchingly awkward and emotionally genuine negotiation of compromises with which any couple can sympathize. The other is a loud, obnoxious collection of pratfalls, testicle jokes, and vomit-
Oh, all right, I’ll tell you. Even though codirector Peter Farrelly says, “This is a good, old-
The worst scene may be, though, the one in which Drew Barrymore tells Jimmy Fallon, “You have a lyrical soul.” I’m not even sure Jimmy Fallon is human — I think he was extruded from plastic in a factory in Korea — never mind having a soul, never mind having a lyrical soul.
Yeah, the Brits got Colin Firth as the avid fan of the Arsenal football squad, and we get Jimmy Fallon (Taxi) as the Red Sox devotee. Is there is less charismatic or more robotic “actor” working today? Oh, and he’s got no sense of comic timing, either — the scene in which his Boston schoolteacher asks Barrymore’s (Duplex, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle) “business consultant” out for their first date is squirm-
Oh, the cartoon characters that Fallon and Barrymore portray eventually resolve their differences, but that’s incidental to the cavalcade of physical abuse and random humiliation that precedes it. We should really be insulted, as Americans, that everything had to be so dumbed down and cartooned up for us. Why do we need a narrator to explain things to us — like how the guys got into football/
Fever Pitch (1997)
viewed at home on a small screen
rated R for language
IMDB
Fever Pitch (2005)
viewed at a semipublic screening with an audience of critics and ordinary moviegoers
rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and some sensuality
official site | IMDB
please help keep truly independent film criticism alive!


Pledge your support now at Patreon or Substack.
When you purchase or rent almost anything from Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, and iTunes (globally), you help support my work at Flick Filosopher. Please use my links when you’re shopping at either service. Thank you!
reviews