Movie Reviews
There is a scene in 1994’s “Dumb and Dumber” where Jim Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas has a sincere brush with sensitivity. It was brief, but it was so unexpected that you’d have to stop laughing just to hear it. In 1998’s “There’s Something About Mary”, a character named Tucker has a leg deficiency that requires arm braces. Although his condition is played for laughs, you never once feel cruel after laughing because his comedy is honest, and it never cheats. In 2003’s “Stuck on You”, Greg Kinear and Matt Damon play two brothers conjoined at the waist. That entire film is laugh fest directly at the fact that they are conjoined, but you don’t feel horrible after laughing because it’s so sensitive towards the condition.
Peter and Bobby Farrelly movies have the rare ability to make you laugh incessantly, and then come to terms with something you don’t normally think about. What’s so remarkable about this is that the Farrelly’s make slapstick comedies – ones that at first glance, should not be able to have a sensitive side.
But in my opinion, there have been merely three people that revived comedy in the 1990s, and continue to use it for what it was made for: Kevin Smith and Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Their films use comedy for things you wouldn’t normally think to use comedy for, but it almost always works splendidly.
“Fever Pitch”, the new film by the Farrelly Brothers is their first live-action film not to be written by them, which is saying quite a bit. I think that the brothers have always been able to bring an almost unnoticeable sense of sentimentality to their films, they’ve just never been able to make a sentimental movie. The wonderful thing about “Fever Pitch” is that it so gracefully combines comedic romance with Farrelly slapstick. Say what you want, but this is most certainly a “chick flick”, but you can tell it was in the hands of these two.
In the film, Drew Barrymore plays Lindsey, a very successful young woman who meets a schoolteacher named Ben, played by Jimmy Fallon. In the beginning, their relationship is flawless and every step Ben takes is made of gold. Lindsey seriously considers a future together with him. But that’s during the winter. It’s not baseball season yet.
When summer hits, she finds that Ben is unhealthily infatuated with the Boston Red Sox. Baseball is his life. It was what got him through his childhood, and now, twenty-three years later, it’s the most important aspect of his life. He explains that his relationships never work because of the obsession, but Lindsey wants to work through it. That turns out to be a little too much.
This is a film that is so involving that you become a die-hard Red Sox fan for 105 minutes. You feel a lustful need for the Red Sox to win. Part of that is due to the wonderful performances given by Barrymore and Fallon. Barrymore is a good actress, yes, but she usually doesn’t get involved in good roles. Here, we see her elegant versatility unfold. And Fallon is fantastic. He’s character fits him perfectly, nearly the same Fallon we grew to like on SNL.
You can find a romantic comedy anywhere. You can indulge yourself with the mindlessness of films like “Miss Congeniality” very easily. It’s not often you find something like this. If intrigue and charm is the pathway to treasure, “Fever Pitch” is a gem. *** ½