“Fever Pitch” - Everybody wins

 My name is Mike and I am a Boston Red Sox fan, so a movie about an obsessed Red Sox fan and the woman who falls in love with him had instant appeal for me, especially since I knew that this story had perhaps one of the happiest endings of all time. In case you don’t follow baseball or have been living in a cave (Osama, I’m talking to you), the Red Sox won their first World Series since 1918 last October. I admit it. This was an event movie for me. I knew that I was going to see this film opening weekend when I saw stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon filming scenes in the stands during the World Series last year. “Fever Pitch” did not disappoint this Red Sox fan but I think it also works as a romantic comedy, giving it appeal outside of New England.

“Fever Pitch” follows high school math teacher Ben Wrightman falling for high powered corporate executive Lindsey Meeks. Their courtship begins in the off season, so Lindsey does not know the extent of Ben’s passion for the Red Sox at first. She meets “summer guy” once the season begins and she has to wonder where she fits in his life from April to October. Ben has been passionate about the Sox since moving to Boston and for the last 11 years he has never missed a game. He inherited season tickets from his uncle and he attends each home game, spending time with the other fans in his area, his “summer family.”

The movie follows the traditional romantic comedy formula of boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back, but unlike other romantic comedies “Fever Pitch” also has a girl gets boy, girl loses boy to baseball obsession, girl gets boy back, both find a compromise and go to the World Series together storyline. Barrymore is perfect for this type of movie. She’s cute and funny and well, who wouldn’t want to take her to Fenway Park? Fallon fits this type of movie pretty well too. He has good comedic timing and he makes the nice guy and the obsessed guy very likable. He’s not the drunken loudmouth idiot that you want to yell at and tell to sit down. “Fever Pitch,” originally about a British soccer fan, was written by Nick Hornby and like his other works, “About a Boy” and “High Fidelity” this is a movie about growing up. It is a welcome addition to that canon of work and the screenplay by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (City Slickers) strikes the right chords of funny and touching throughout.

As a Farrelly Brothers movie, “Fever Pitch” is easily their most accessible work. There aren’t any lewd and crude scenes or really outrageous, over the top comedy bits, but like most of their films it features a really good heart and shows a good use of music. “Fever Pitch” is like a love letter to the team they grew up following in New England and the people who love the Sox, despite all the times they got their heart broken in the most vicious ways possible. The supporting cast was very good with Ione Skye showing up as one of Lindsey’s friends and James B. Sikking and JoBeth Williams having some good scenes as Lindsey’s parents. It was also nice to see some of the Farrelly Brothers’ stock actors show up in this film and fans of their other films should be able to easily pick them out.

If you love the Red Sox, you have to see this movie. The beginning of the film when Uncle Carl takes young Ben to his first game at Fenway is sure to make any Sox fan misty. It took a lot for me to not lose it when “Dirty Water” started playing and the end of the film, with scenes from the most amazing comeback in the history of sports (prove me wrong), is and will always be goosebump-inducing. This is a love story for everybody though and a home run of a date movie.

• **1/2