Fever Pitch (Red Sox Collector's Edition) (DVD)

I think there was a bunch of room for a great movie somewhere in Fever Pitch. In my eyes, being a fanatic fan is all about anger, which is right where great comedy comes from too. Unfortunately the Farrelly's made a comedy without anger. What we got instead was a romance that had negative logic and comedy, without the laughs.

I want to highlight the things I enjoyed right off the bat (groan) so some of the deeper problems with Fever Pitch can be explored. I greatly enjoyed the soundtrack; it was full of relevant and hip music that kept the movie going. It never felt forced. I also initially thought (and kind of still do) that Fallon was an inspired choice as the male lead. He has an awkwardness that plays well in certain moments. Additionally, I think we have an emotionally honest movie here. In real life people in relationships want their partner to change as much as humanly possible to accommodate their needs. This is not an off the wall theory but a real life normal thing. Maybe they should have gone the documentary route? Also pleasing was Ione Skye's presence in the film. It has been sixteen years since I saw her in Say Anything and it was like seeing an old friend. It would have been better if the old friend could lend me some money but you can't win them all. That's about it for the positives in Fever Pitch.

The plot of Fever Pitch is of Fallon as an obsessed Red Sox fan and the woman (Barrymore) who loves him. Sadly, the logic problems with the movie are big enough to kill a horse. First off, the movie was adapted from a Nick Hornby story about soccer (the Arsenal team to be specific). How we got from Arsenal to the Boston Red Sox across the pond I'll never know. Why even call it Fever Pitch? What exactly did they adapt? The book has as much in common with the movie as I do a hippo. Other than a grey complexion on my bad days that's not much. There are also three scenes, which were literally impossible. I won't spoil it for you, but one involved ticket buying, one involved a public spectacle and one involved the ending of the film. I'm not talking "suspend your disbelief" I'm talking "suspend all brain functions." I just sat there in horror watching the ending play out with no explanation from the filmmakers. I even went back to the commentary to hear an explanation and it made it even worse. From There's Something about Mary to this, how the mighty have fallen. I get that it was a work of love gents, but how about next time a work of entertainment too?

The fact is great comedies don't need logic, so it still could have been a great movie, but they do need comedy at the very least. Fever Pitch doesn't have it. You won't say "Ha." It's not unique or jarring in any way. It's more like a straight drama than a comedy. Okay, it has a few witty quips, a tiny bit of banter, but nothing you couldn't have caught on My Two Dads about twenty years ago. A comedy that isn't funny, a romance that doesn't make any sense, perhaps this wasn't the Farrelly's tribute to their home town, but a tribute to irony instead.

As far as the DVD goes it has the aforementioned commentary in which you learn that delusions can get you at any time. The gag reel is five minutes of gags that don't work. The deleted scenes do work because you agree they should have been deleted. For my money I'd invest in the special edition of There's Something about Mary or perhaps the complete Red Sox DVD's from MLB. Either way, looking at the past or the truth will be much more enjoyable than looking at whatever Fever Pitch was.