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Fever
Pitch We had to go out and see this film of course
due to our New England upbringing and the fact that it's based on a book by Nick
Hornby who wrote High Fidelity and who's books usually translate OK
to the screen. The book is actually about Arsenal Soccer and not the Boston Red Sox but since soccer isn't
all that appreciated over here, comedy gurus the Farrelly brothers evidently
decided to switch the subject matter to something that Americans can
relate to and make it about the loveable Beantown losers and
baseball. The
problem was that, during filming, the losers became winners for the
first time in 86 years and the script had to be altered to more
accurately reflect what had occurred. Being that it's a romantic
comedy about Boston, starring a native New Yorker and admitted
Yankee fan in Jimmy
Fallon and his paramour Drew
Barrymore who's from Hollywood or someplace, authentic was not
what we expected and not what we got. You'd think that Affleck or
Damon, who have been in some real crap lately, would've jumped at
the chance to play Bostonian Ben, a boy in a man's body who's devotion to the
Sox often gets in the way of him having a normal relationship with a
woman, in this case, Barrymore who is some sort of yuppie math
genius who also doesn't appear to be from around there. There's lots
of great shots of Fenway and the surrounding neighborhoods but this
film would have been much better served had it been set in Chicago
with the Cubs as a back drop. As it is, the characters are mostly
unbelievable as Bostonians, the plotline is predictable, and the
ending cornball. However it is a pretty movie to look at especially
for Red Sox fans and not all that objectionable even though Fallon
really doesn't carry his weight. There are some cute moments, and
cool memorabilia and, although it will definitely help if you are a
baseball fan, you could do quite a bit worse in this genre than
Fever Pitch.
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