He swings, he hits, it's deep, back, back, back, it's outta here!! Lame way to start things off, but I had to get that out at the start or else it would just be sticking in the back of my mind.
Fever Pitch is the latest film from the brothers Farrelly, and it is a step up from their last few films. I was of the opinion that they peaked with There's Something About Mary and they were on their slide back to obscurity. I am glad to say this movie proved me wrong.
The Farrelly's have set aside their penchant for gross out humor and have turned out a surprisingly touching film about the different loves and needs of men and woman looking for companionship and the ways that they can be sabotaged, whether that be done knowingly or not. This may not be the best movie to show that, but it is definitely fun. In addition to that lack of toilet humor, this is also the first time that they have directed a film that they did not write or rewrite. That may be a key to their creative resurgence. Anyway, on to the film.
Fever Pitch tells the saga Ben and Lindsey. Ben is a hopeless Red Sox fan, and Lindsey is just looking for love, in all the wrong places. I can't say that there is anything terribly original. By now, most people know the standard formula for the romantic comedy. Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, both realize they want each other, boy and girl get back together and live happily ever after. That more or less sums it up.
What makes this work so well are the lead performances and the setting. The setting is so perfect because besides having the tale of loss culminating in the happy ending, you have the backdrop of the Cinderella story Red Sox overcoming all to become World Champions for the first time in 86 years. It was a real world story that had a big impact on the tale, so much that they had to incorporate it into the story. It just worked out so well.
Despite what was really happening in the world of baseball, it was the characters that grounded the story and gave it a solid dose of heart. Jimmy Fallon proves that he can cut it on the big screen after his dreadful outing in Taxi. Here he gives Ben a heart, he plays a character that lives for his team, so he knows what dedication is, yet has trouble giving that dedication to anyone else. Drew Barrymore, on the other hand, plays a strong, yet vulnerable survivor of the love battlefield who has yet to find the right man. Are they perfect together? Nope, but no one ever really is. This comically fractured pair are perfect for each other, and they learn that over the course of them learning to deal with what is fracturing them.
Video. The disk is presented in anamorphic widescreen, preserving it's OAR of 1.85:1. It is a nice transfer, deep blacks, sharp colors. I did not notice any artifacts or other blemishes. Nothing to complain about at all.
Audio. The soundtrack is represented by a 5.1 Dolby digital track. It sounds good, not much surround, but this is a dialog driven film, again, nothing to complain about.
Extras. The disk has a pretty good selection to satiate the films fans.
-First up is a commentary track with Bobby and Peter Farrelly. It is an entertaining track, the brothers are quite chatty, offering a lot of stories about the cast members and the production in general. There are very few silences, and they present very personable personas. Definitely worth listening to.
-Gag Reel. There is a 5 minute gag reel of flubbed lines and such. Pretty funny.
-Featurettes. There are a pair of them here, they both first appeared online. They are "Break the Curse" and "Love Triangle." They are short, a couple of minutes each, but are still a nice look into the production.
-"Fox Movie Channel Presents "Making a Scene." This is interesting as it looks at them getting approval to film on the field during the World Series, to put a real capper on the film.
-Lastly we have the original trailer.
Bottomline. This a very good film, good performances, and an odd sort of document to the changing face of Red Sox baseball. I would have no problem recommending this, even to Yankee fans.
Recommended.
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