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When it was announced that gross-out kings Peter and Bobby Farrelly were going to take a swing at Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, fans of the novel balked. How could the makers of There's Something About Mary do justice to Hornby's comic memoir about how work, women, and life itself all took a backseat to his utter obsession with London's Arsenal Football Club? Especially when they were moving the locale to Boston and changing the obsession to baseball's Red Sox. Hornby devotees should relax. While Fever Pitch's specifics have changed, Hornby's insight into the mind of the obsessive male -- also seen in High Fidelity and About a Boy -- remains intact, and the result is a winning romantic comedy. (Plus, there's already a faithful 1998 screen adaptation of Fever Pitch starring Colin Firth.) Drew Barrymore portrays a Boston-based, career-oriented young woman who longs for a substantive relationship but finds herself repelled by the self-absorbed men she usually meets. Then along comes a mild-mannered but witty math teacher (Saturday Night Live vet Jimmy Fallon) who charms her with his ready humor and attentiveness. But then comes baseball season, and with it the revelation that the teacher is a truly fanatical Red Sox fan willing to sacrifice anything -- and anybody -- rather than miss a game. Will true love win out or strike out? You can probably guess the answer, but the fun is in watching how this little saga unfolds. The most improbable aspect of the story, however, is that the Sox finally beat the Curse of the Bambino and went all the way in 2004, changing the film's World Series climax. The Farrellys, who've always had a sweet tooth, eschew gross-out gags entirely in favor of true love and fireworks. The contrivances mount near the end, but Barrymore and Fallon work so well together that it hardly matters. Fever Pitch may not be a home run, but it's a solid double that makes for perfect date night material in the off-season.

All Movie Guide

Nick Hornby's acclaimed memoir about one man's struggle to balance his love of a woman and his love for soccer was the basis of a well-reviewed British film in 1997, and now gets a Americanized rewrite with this picture, in which the game is changed from soccer to baseball. Ben (Jimmy Fallon) is a high-school teacher who meets Lindsay (Drew Barrymore), who has a successful career in business. Ben and Lindsay don't appear to have much in common on the surface, but they hit it off and are soon involved in a serious romance. But when spring rolls around, Lindsay becomes aware of the true love of Ben's life -- the Boston Red Sox. Despite the team's lamentable record, Ben has been a fiercely loyal Red Sox fan since childhood, and Lindsay finds it hard to compete with his passion for baseball, while Ben is forced to choose between the obsessions of his youth and the enthusiasms of a responsible adult. Fever Pitch was shot in part in Boston during the 2004 baseball season, which to the surprise of the filmmakers saw the Red Sox winning baseball's world series for the first time since 1918. Mark Deming

Entertainment Weekly

It's been a while since a movie made the game of love this winning. Owen Gleiberman

Boston Globe

Effortlessly entertaining romantic comedy. Wesley Morris

Product Details

• UPC: 024543198536
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Time: 1:43:00
• Sales Rank: 10,206

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Drew Barrymore Celebrity Pack
• Taxi / Fever Pitch
• Bull Durham & Fever Pitch

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