Fever Pitch

Year: 2005

Grade: B-

Country: USA

Director: Farrelly

Review

it’s a farrelly brothers movie, but it’s not a farrelly brothers script; and it shows. it’s not because the film is a “date movie,” because they’ve done romantically driven films before (there’s something about mary, shallow hal, me myself and irene, etc.) it’s different for them because it’s the first time i remember watching a film of theirs and thinking that they pulled their punches. i’m not sure if felt this way because i knew it wasn’t written by them or because it’s not being marketed as a farrelly brothers film, but there were a couple times when i felt they didn’t go as far with a joke as they had in the past. then again,  it could just be chalked up as “maturation.”

don’t get me wrong – the film still has the farrelly brothers touch (for better or worse, depending on your views) – it still has a fair share of gross humor and freakish secondary characters, both of which are staples of the farrelly filmography. good performances are another staple of their work – greg kinner, matt damon, eva mendes (stuck on you) all over-performed. harrelson, randy quaid (kingpin) had better than normal performances there. jack black and jason alexander were both good in shallow hal. cameron diaz did her best work in there’s something about mary; and matt dillon had a revitalizing performance in that film as well. drew barrymore, who wasn’t anything special in duplex, did a very fine job here, and jimmy fallon, who i can only assume sucked in taxi, did a really great job with the comic portions of his performance.

it’s not a film that is going to leave you laughing for days, like there’s something about mary, but the comedy is varied and effective. also, the summation of the sox’s last four games in the 04 series is goose bump inducing, if you have any love for the game or the sox. likely the greatest comeback in sports history. just stunning.

Watched in theater