I believe in miracles - not because the Boston Redsox won the World Series, but because I actually sat through Fever Pitch and liked it. When they're good, romantic comedies are magic; when they're not, they're a prison sentence. Fever Pitch was obviously manipulated to get guys to show up on opening night by making the guy a Redsox fan. But the guy they picked was Jimmy Fallon. Ladies, I don't know if you've gotten the memo yet, but Jimmy Fallon isn't exactly our "I wanna be like that guy" guy.

So just imagine my trepidation. Manipulated premise. Jimmy Fallon. Drew Barrymore. So much cute in the room, I'm ready to die from sugar diabetes. All I needed was one good excuse - like writing at the level of Fallon's excrecious Taxi - and that would have been enough to hit "eject" and fling the DVD across the room like a killer frisbee - a process I was ready to call the Barrymore Fallination Technique.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Fever Pitch may be a tad manipulative, and its leads are definitely, toxically, cute - but damned if this one didn't woo me within the first fifteen minutes. Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore) is a workaholic, obsessed with making her way up the corporate ladder. That is, until she meets Ben (Jimmy Fallon), a schoolteacher who has a way with kids - and a way with her heart. As she finds out on their first date, he's the perfect guy in many respects. There's only one problem: He's a Redsox fan.

To its credit, Fever Pitch spells out just what that means, without going overboard. This I understand. Don't get me wrong. I think baseball's a snore - but I also live within the shadow of the Tampa Bay Bucs, a team whose own "make good season" came at the end of decades of one disappointment after another. The Bucs are known throughout the NFL - and half the free world - for having the best tailgate parties - and it's a reputation they earned way back when they sucked so bad people wondered if they actually played professional ball.

That, times a hundred, must be what life is like for Redsox fans - not just the folks who show up to the odd game (Do such people exist?) but the ones who have season tickets year in and year out, the people who follow the game the way some people observe a religion, the people who carry all those stats in their head, the people who voted for Kerry.

Okay, let's not push it.*

No romantic comedy will ever be complete without a serious obstacle, a veritable Grand Canyon leaving John on the north ridge and Marcia on the south. In a story about a workaholic woman and a Redsox fan, it's not hard to see heartache coming on the two o'clock train. Fortunately, the script, by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, doesn't make this a one-joke film. Without losing its quality as a comedy, this adaptation of the Nick Hornby novel (whose other books, About a Boy and High Fidelity, also made it to the big screen), does try to do more than life at fans the way Trekkies have become a popculture joke.

It doesn't hurt that Ganz & Mandel have partnered on their share of stories about guys (including City Slickers, Multiplicity, Father's Day), choices (Parenthood) and baseball (A League of Their Own). Maybe that's why this film, from Peter and Bobby Farrelly - who usually write what they direct - is as sweet as it is, without dipping into their usual inkwell of PC-bashing gross-out jokes. Unfortunately, that also cuts back on the home runs. That's one thing about the Farrelly Brothers: Their humor has a reputation for being winceably tasteless but outrageously funny. Leaving the story in the hands of veteran scribes shaved it from both ends. The result is a sweet, enjoyable romantic comedy that isn't vulgar but isn't laugh-out loud funny, either.

But that's okay. The exploration of character makes up at least some of the gap. Both character arcs allow the inevitable sparks to fly while letting two very different characters grow. They also allow these two to question the values of their respective systems. Whether we're talking about the corporate ladder or the big team - or, for that matter, anything - there comes a point when we all have to ask if there's something beyond all this.

My favorite moment came about an hour or so into it when Drew Barrymore actually did something I've been waiting to see for some time now. There's a shot in there where she looks up and actually flashes that face, the one she first flashed in E.T. - and the one we've been missing all these years as that little Shirley Temple with the big hair has been replaced by a much quieter, reserved young lady. I honestly think there's more to Drew Barrymore than she's been showing - with or without her clothes on. I'd love to see more of that mischievous smile, the total command of the scene that she had way back when. She was once the Dakota Fanning of the day - totally fearless, totally expressive, with a gigantic personality. It would be great to see that again

As for Jimmy Fallon, this film suggests that he's got the talent to be more than the next Corky Romano. It's hard not to dismiss this guy as a lightweight, but there are moments in this film - especially when we see him at school interacting with the kids - that he actually shows real potential. Mike Myers started out like this - look at So I Married An Axe Murderer - but look at where he went. Even David Spade, the onetime lightweight of lightweights, is starting to develop some ballast.

Let's hope that time is good to these folks. Taxi was enjoyable. I hope the next 10 films are even better.
----------------------
*I live in Bush country, where Bush had a decided advantage. His name not only came first. It only had four letters in it. You do the math.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12