Fever Pitch

Rated PG-13

Starring Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon

            The Farrelly Brothers are famous for bringing hilarious toilet humor to each of their films, but their latest, “Fever Pitch,” lacks any sort of gross-out gag. And that’s a good thing – something nasty wouldn’t have fit in with a romantic comedy of this sort. Anyway, I’ve always been a Farrelly fan and let me just say that “Fever Pitch” is one of their best.

            Jimmy Fallon plays Ben, an easy-going schoolteacher who begins a relationship with workaholic Lucy (Drew Barrymore.) Everything, for the most part, is going great until Lucy realizes that Ben is an extreme Red Socks baseball fan. Not only does he compulsively attend every one of their games, his room is decorated everything Red Socks. Although this obsession doesn’t bother Lucy at first, she soon grows weary of it (such as when Ben chooses the Socks over a trip to Paris with Lucy.)

            One reason the film works so well is that it’s a romantic comedy that’s actually about something important. Most films of this genre resort to stupid plotlines and a lot of other nonsense, but here is a movie that takes its characters seriously and has a strong message about devotion.

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