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'Fever Pitch': Falling for a game called love

Being from New England, I know guys like Ben Wrightman, the rabid Red Sox fan portrayed by Jimmy Fallon in Fever Pitch.

My friend Paul, for instance, couldn't find a remotely affordable ticket for any home games during last October's World Series, when the Sox finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino" to win the series for the first time in 86 years, so he flew to St. Louis, home of the team's opponent, in hopes of finding a cheaper seat there.

20th Century Fox 'Fever Pitch' B Directors: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly Starring: Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon Run time: 98 minutes Release date: April 8, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, and some sensuality. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Fever Pitch"   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Paul's treasured Game 4 ticket stub is enshrined in a case along with clay scooped from the Busch Stadium field. His suburban Boston home also exhibits a scale model of Fenway Park; portraits of the 1918 and 2004 Red Sox teams; and a snapped Babe Ruth signature Louisville Slugger bat emblazoned with the date and time of the Sox's historic victory and the words: "The Curse is Broken."

So believe me, Ben is no big stretch of the imagination. His obsessive fandom makes for a fresh, effective foil in Fever Pitch, which throws a curve ball at standard romantic comedy formula.

It's about a passion for a team, as well as for the opposite sex.

Ben is a Boston school teacher who inherited a pair of box seats at Fenway from his late uncle, who transformed him from an early age into "one of God's most pathetic creatures — a Red Sox fan." Ben hasn't missed a home game in more than 20 years, and like my friend Paul, his apartment is a shrine to his beloved Bosox.

Ben meets his match in Lindsey Meeks, an ambitious, career-minded business consultant played by Drew Barrymore. At first, it appears that their class differences will keep them apart, but Lindsey's friend Robin (KaDee Strickland) suspects something worse, given that Ben is 30 and has never been "tranquilized and tagged."

Come to think of it, my pal Paul is still single, too.

What comes between Lindsey and Ben is the latter's die-hard devotion to the Sox — or, as Lindsey sees it, his inability to grow up. She's a workaholic, but that's "more socially acceptable," Ben says.

Loosely adapted from Nick Hornby's novel about his own obsession with soccer, Fever Pitch is an engaging romantic comedy that men will enjoy as much as women, especially because it can apply to any sports fixation.

Directed by New England natives Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the film plays the Red Sox's long tradition of losing for laughs. However, the Sox provided a real-life fairy-tale ending during filming last fall, forcing screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel (Robots) to revamp Fever Pitch's finale on the fly.

The Farrelly brothers, best known for the hilarious There's Something About Mary, tone-down their usual gross-out humor, opting for a more genial pitch. Still, there are plenty of pratfalls and a few crude sex gags.

The comedy occasionally falters, like the Red Sox in July, but it hits more than it misses.

Fallon, a Saturday Night Live alumnus, brings a likable, boyish charm to Ben. He has nice chemistry with Barrymore, appealing as always, so that we end up rooting for them to reach home, romantically speaking.

Fever Pitch is a "wicked good" date movie, as my friend Paul would say.