Fever Pitch (2005 film)

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Fever Pitch
Promotional poster for Fever Pitch
Directed by	Farrelly Brothers
Produced by	Nancy Juvonen
Written by	Nick Hornby (novel) Lowell Ganz (screenplay)
Starring	Drew Barrymore Jimmy Fallon
Music by	Craig Armstrong
Cinematography	Greg Le Duc Matthew F. Leonetti
Editing by	Alan Baumgarten
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	April 8, 2005
Running time	103 min
Language	English
Budget	$30 million
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Fever Pitch, which was released as The Perfect Catch outside of the United States and Canada, is a Farrelly Brothers comedy film. It is a remake of a 1997 British film of the same name, and is loosely based on the Nick Hornby book Fever Pitch, a best-selling novel in the UK. While both the book and the original 1997 film are about Football (soccer), this version, aimed at the US market, is about baseball. The film opened in theaters on April 8, 2005.

[edit] Plot

This movie is about a man named Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon) stuck in a "conflict of decision" between two loves-- Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore), a beautiful businesswoman, and the Boston Red Sox baseball team.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Games

The movie was filmed at many actual Red Sox games.

• The Opening Day sequence was filmed on September 4, 2004 with Stephen King throwing out the first pitch; the Red Sox lost that game, ending a ten-game winning streak and King was blamed for it in the Boston Globe. This game was against the Texas Rangers (Red Sox lost 8-6).
• Another game filmed for the movie was the September 16, 2004 game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, which Boston won 11-4. The shooting consisted of Drew Barrymore running across the field to where Jimmy Fallon was sitting, near the Red Sox dugout. This was filmed after the game, with about half the crowd staying after to be extras.
• Footage from a game in Toronto, Canada between the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays on October 1, 2004 was shot for the movie. Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon were present at the game and Drew Barrymore was asked to throw the first pitch of the game. It barely made it to the plate and she was totally embarrassed.
• On October 27, 2004, Game 4 of the 2004 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox, the finale of this film was shot. After the last play of the game in the bottom of the ninth during the Red Sox celebration, stars Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon were filmed also celebrating together on the field. A brief shot of the filming could be seen live on the Fox broadcast of the World Series. Rewrites by the Farrelly brothers had to be done immediately following the World Series game 7 clincher of the ALCS against the New York Yankees to include the historic 2004 Boston Red Sox post-season.

[edit] Trivia

• Reportedly the film's ending was rewritten at least once as the real-life Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, their first win in 86 years.^[1]
• Several scenes were shot on location at Fenway Park before, during, and after several home games in the 2004 season, and one scene was shot on the field at Busch Stadium, moments after the Red Sox's final win over the Cardinals.^[2]
• Ben has a gigantic replica of Fenway Park's left field wall (a.k.a. "The Green Monster") on the wall of his apartment. In real life and in his apartment, the wall includes a hand-operated scoreboard. The particular game immortalized on Ben's mural is that of Game 3 of the 1999 American League Championship Series, won by the Red Sox over the New York Yankees, 13-1. Before Boston's conquest of New York in 2004 (depicted at the end of the film), the '99 game was one of the most memorable Boston wins in recent memory.
• Steve Sweeney was originally slated to be the scalper, but had pneumonia. Peter Farrelly then pulled Ken Rogerson, who was just an extra at the time, over and said, "Your part just got bigger."
• Ben teaches at East Boston High School, which had served as the exterior for Winslow High School in "Boston Public" (2000).
• The warm-up jacket Drew Barrymore wears in the film became extremely popular among female Red Sox fans the week before its national release, and was sold out in stores all across New England.
• This film is loosely based on author Nick Hornby's autobiographical account of his fanatical obsession with the English soccer club Arsenal F.C. while growing up, from his book of the same name.
• The 17 player extras were suited up as the Sox and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The 18th person on the field, Mark Van Savage, is a dead ringer for Johnny Damon and was going to be his body double in the scene. As they were setting up the shot, Damon came out from the dugout, waved to the crowd, and trotted out towards center field. Van Savage shrugged and left by the gate that he and the camera trucks came in by.
• There is a scene in the trailer in a sports bar when Lindsey says "It's just a game!" and the sports bar immediately goes quiet, until Ben says "She said 'It's a crying Shame.'" This scene is not in the movie.
• During the flashback to the first game that Ben's uncle took him to we see three actual former 1980 Red Sox players playing themselves. Two are very recognizable star players Dennis Eckersley and Jim Rice. The other is Keith Macwhorter who only pitched one season in the majors. His career record was 0 wins and 3 losses in his 24 game career.
• The song featured at the end of the movie in the final scene is "who killed tangerine", which, many believe was made popular by "Fever Pitch"

[edit] Critical reception

The movie has a 64% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatos and a rating of 56 from metacritic. Sportswriter Bill Simmons has been particularly critical of the film, even dedicating one of his columns to criticizing it. Among his complaints: the movie paints a stereotypical and untrue picture of pessimistic Red Sox fans (he claims that few fans believe in the Curse of the Bambino, and that having characters talk about it ruins the film's credibility) and that filming on the field during the post-World Series celebration shows a lack of respect by the directors.

[edit] Quotes

• Steve Levy: Where do the Red Sox rank in your life?
• Ben Wrightman: I say Red Sox (makes hand flat and raises to head-level), sex (lowers hand), and breathing (lowers hand even more)!

[edit] Notes

1. ^ [1] Zap2It.com (accessed October 15, 2005)
2. ^ Head, Steve (2004). "Jimmy Fallon Talks Fever Pitch" FilmForce.ign.com (accessed May 6, 2006)

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Fever Pitch (2005) at the Internet Movie Database
• Fever Pitch at the Baseball Movie Guide