Romantic comedies aren't exactly my ideal film watching genre, but I'll make an exception when a baseball themed film with Nick Hornsby source material and Farrelly brothers' direction appears at the local multiplex. Being a longtime hardcore baseball fan, Baseball Fever had to "ring true" or my B.S. alarm would go off wildly (like it did for the wretched For Love of the Game) and I couldn’t enjoy the experience. So, I'm pleased to report that this film captures much of the spirit of the devoted Red Sox Nation while incorporating a few brief clips of the magical 2004 season--enough to satisfy most baseball fans.

Inevitably the baseball geeks will notice inaccuracies—like the fact that there was no miraculous late inning 8-7 comeback win against the Yankees in late September or that there were no late September games against the Texas Rangers at Fenway after the Yankees series. I just happened to be at Fenway for the final home series of the regular season against the hated Yankees and happily saw the Sox blow them out in the last two games after Pedro had unwittingly adopted the Yankees as his "daddy" after a tough opening loss. So the script takes liberties with the facts for dramatic purposes, but it's still true to the spirit of the 2004 Red Sox season, and the Farrelly brothers significantly re-wrote it when the Red Sox amazingly reversed their 86 year curse. The Sox did stage an improbable 11-10 come back win at Fenway in late July against the Yankees that propelled them into the playoffs, and then staged their unprecedented come back AL series victory after trailing the Yankees three games to none. That is the Bambino curse lifting stuff of legendary lore--a plot far too fanciful for Hollywood to dream up.

Although baseball forms a basic component of Fever Pitch, it remains essentially background material, just like the scenery. USA Today came out with an article a couple years ago about how Fenway Park had become THE hot dating scene in Boston, and that is what lies at the core of this film. This is a date flick, and Nick Hornby has supplied the film industry with some of the best relationship material, coming from a male viewpoint--with High Fidelity and About a Boy adaptations to his credit. Screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Barbaloo Mandel change Hornsby’s novel about soccer obsession to baseball, and Boston is the perfect setting. As one character queries, "You love the Red Sox, but have they ever loved you back?"

After establishing shots show Fenway Park's "Green Monster" and the now famous "Reverse Curve" road sign spray painted to read "Reverse the Curse," complete with lettering fonts identical with the Red Sox, we are prepared for the baseball setting. It's soon after the 2003 heartbreak (an Aaron Boone walkoff homer), and we meet 30 year old math teacher Ben (Jimmy Fallon), as he takes his prize students to meet successful 30 year old business executive Lindsey Meeks (Drew Barrymore) to see how math is applied to the real world. Despite their completely differing economic standing, Ben musters the courage to ask her out, and she goes against "normal" social mores and accepts. After all, she's beginning to feel pressure to get married and all the professionals she's dated haven’t worked out, and she's attracted to Ben's natural humor and sweetness—qualities that are really brought out on their "first date."

Ben is such a charmer, that even Lindsey's upwardly striving friends think that he could be "Mr. Right," and their successful husbands also like Ben (for different reasons). One revealing party scene shows the women talking about Ben (wondering how such a great guy could still be available, figuring that he must have a dark secret) while the men gather around Ben, enraptured because he has incredible season tickets to the Red Sox. Despite their career and financial success, Ben's 23 years of personal experiences at Fenway can never be matched and no one can obtain those season tickets without connections.

All goes well with Lindsey and Ben during his "Winter Guy" stage, but when March rolls around, Ben fesses up his “dark secret”—that he is a Red Sox fan and this has been a lifelong problem with him and the women he has dated.

Relieved over the triviality of this revelation, she scoffs at this. After all, she has her own career that consumes a lot of energy and she's already figured that he was a Red Sox fan. After all, she's seen his apartment. It looks like it’s been furnished by the Souvenir Store on Yawkey Avenue--Red Sox sheets, pillows, throw cushions, towels, shower curtains, pictures, pennants, leather glove telephone, etc.

But, she has no idea about exactly what Ben's "Summer Guy" persona really means. For instance, how could he want to spend two weeks in Ft. Myers, Florida for spring training "practice" games instead of meeting her parents? When ESPN showcases Ben and a few other fanatical fans, she gets her first glimpse of the transformation. When asked how important his team is to him, Ben responds, "Red Sox, then sex, and then breathing." And that is a pretty accurate description. Can Lindsey ever learn to cope with a man who regards the Red Sox home schedule as unbreakable 81+ "business" appointments? This Sox thing is so serious that divorced couples with season tickets retain their seats, and selling your ticket rights to someone else is unfathomable.

There's something about baseball that transforms men into Peter Pan, and Fallon is perfectly cast as the boyishly enthusiastic fan, a truly nice guy with a great sense of humor. He's a natural charmer, and it's impossible to think of anyone else that could carry off this role as authentically. If Fallon isn't a real baseball fan, he's got my vote for Best Actor for 2005 since he comes across as a diehard fan so naturally. Drew Barrymore likewise fits her role perfectly, as the ambitious career woman who now strives to understand this obsessed Sox fan, but understandably gets hurt when the Sox schedule ranks higher than a weekend in Paris or a foul ball gets more attention than her own safety and well being.

I'm not sure exactly how the Red Sox World Series victory changed the intended original ending of Fever Pitch, other than provide a puzzling real live moment in St. Louis when Fallon and Barrymore were (at that time) inexplicably seen on the field celebrating the Sox victory as camera crews followed them about. Perhaps, the original script called for the same kind of heartbreak that the Sox have provided their dedicated fans over the past 86 years, but given the actual results of the 2005 season, I can forgive the syrupy conclusion or the cameo characters that quickly fade into the background. There's too much of Fever Pitch that charms to get bent out of shape over--a new wrinkle for the Farrelly brothers that baseball fans and couples can relate to. As Jack Buck would have said, "That's a winner."