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Fever Pitch cute, but not so hot


If you ever thought that you met the world’s most irritating sports enthusiast, think again. Ben, played by Jimmy Fallon, is an irritating but lovable sports enthusiast that is head over heels in love—not with girlfriend Lidsey Meeks, played by Drew Barrymore, but with the Red Sox in Fever Pitch.

The movie opens when Ben, a ninth grade Math teacher, takes selected members of his class on a field trip to Meeks’ place of employment where numbers are crunched and rearranged daily. Meeks falls in love with the kids and is intrigued with their teacher. Within days, Ben arrives at her office to ask her for a date.

At first, Ben seems like a very likeable all around nice guy. In fact, he arrives at Meeks’ condominium for their first date and discoveres that she has an intense case of food poisoning. She asks him if they can reschedule, but runs from the door to the bathroom. Ben comes into her condo and takes care of her.

But this is winter. Soon, summer comes and Ben becomes obsessed with the Red Sox. Meanwhile, Meeks has fallen in love with him, but soon discovers that he is in love with the Red Sox and not her.

At first she thinks that his obsession is like any other normal obsession, but soon she discovers that Ben takes his to a new level.

Soon Meeks realizes that she will never be able to replace the Red Sox in Ben’s life and breaks it off with him.

Meeks is in a resteraunt and learns that she has just received the promotion of her lifetime, but also learns that Ben is trying to sell his highly prized season tickets.

During the course of the movie, the viewer becomes so annoyed with Ben that you almost hope that Meeks does not get back together with him, something highly irregular in a love story.

Barrymore is superb in her role as Lindsey Meeks, but Jimmy Fallon becomes increasingly irritating in his role as Ben.

Fever Pitch is also constructed in segments with scoreboard titles that also becomes increasingly annoying. In fact, the baseball scenes are filmed like little documentaries, different from how the rest of the movie was filmed which detracts from the movie as well. In all, Fever Pitch is cute, but does not break a sweat.

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