Fever Pitch

Directors: Bobby and Peter Farrelly

In one of her best romantic comedies since The Wedding Singer and Never Been Kissed, the always lovable Drew Barrymore generates audience sympathy from the get-go as twenty-nine year old Lindsey Meeks, a successful businesswoman whose love of mathematics and implementation in her career makes her company the ideal location for a field trip for math teacher Ben Wrightman (Jimmy Fallon).

After Ben and Lindsey meet cute amidst his high school honors math class, the two share one of the funniest and sweetest — yet most bizarre — cinematic first dates as they begin an awkward courtship that blossoms into love.

However, their relationship grinds to a halt when Lindsey uncovers Ben’s deep dark secret—his obsessive devotion to the Boston Red Socks, after having inherited his uncle’s season tickets and planning his entire life and therefore happiness around the famously heartbreaking team.

Set during the year that the Red Sox finally broke the curse of the Bambino in a series of astounding upsets that led the team to a World Series victory providing ample room for relationship metaphors, this clever and bright film benefited not only from the genuine chemistry of the two adorable leads but also the crisply written script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel.

Based on Nick Hornby’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name that was turned into a British film about obsessed soccer fan Colin Firth, nothing is lost in this even better American translation, which is one of the most satisfying romantic comedies in recent memory and one that will have both genders in the audience cheering.

Underrated and fun, Fever Pitch is guaranteed to make you want to go to a ballgame.