Fever Pitch vs Keeping The Faith

It's really important in a romantic comedy for the leads to appear to be complete opposites. And when they finally get together, we can see just how powerful love is, and how it hurdles all those boundaries of opposite. Usually though, all romantic comedies can muster on the way to opposite is giving the main characters different jobs. In Fever Pitch, Ben is a math teacher, and Lindsey works as a…there's a computer, and accounts, and huge glass-walled offices…and—is it advertising?—anyway, Lindsey works very hard, and she's not a teacher, so it's doomed from the start. Never mind that they're of compatible height and would look cute on a poster together.

Drew Barrymore plays Lindsey, a high powered executive of some kind. Seriously, no clue. At one point she talks about one of her projects being finding a way to make private jets more affordable, but other times it seems like she works at any number of fashion magazines, advertising houses, accounting firms or investment—it couldn't matter less. The point is that Lindsey is Very Busy and Very Committed to Her Job. She has three friends to work out with and share love-life woes, but it's at least one friend too many. Just because Carrie Bradshaw had three friends doesn't mean Lindsey Meeks should. Remember when Carrie Fisher played all three of these parts by herself? By the way, one of them is played by Ione Skye, who at one point looks directly into the camera and says, “Where the hell have I been?”

So, anyway, Lindsey meets Ben, who is perfect for her, but is also a teacher, so his workday ends on time, and he'll never make more than five figures. Lindsey, on the other hand, owns a cell phone. I mean, come on, what kind of workaholic robot is she? And it rings, like, constantly. Well, twice. It rings twice. Ben would never own a cell phone, or skip breakfast or go straight to hell like that corporate monster Lindsey. This message was brought to you by Twentieth Century Fox.

But they have a lunch, and go for a walk, and soon they're hitting it off, and soon after that, we've fast-forwarded however many months and they're an item, and they couldn't be cuter, just like on the poster. All of this is fine with me, because Fever Pitch stars Drew Barrymore. I just don't care. I don't care one bit which movies she's in. I can guarantee right now that I'll see a third, even a fourth, Charlies Angels. Seriously, the only reason I can think of to be in a band is that you might get to date Drew Barrymore. I was a little nervous about Fever Pitch, because it's directed by the Farrelly brothers. I worried: would Drew's character accidentally drink urine? Would she wear a fat suit? Would she get kicked in the nuts for laughs? Not that she has nuts; I'm positive she doesn't. But in a Farrelly brothers movie, she could, and if she did, she would be getting kicked in them for laughs. But not here. Fever Pitch is smarter than expected. I'm going to pretend it's because Fever Pitch is based on Nick Hornby's memoir. Hornby has proven time and again to have an ear for the way people talk, especially when they say one thing while thinking another. About a Boy brought out the best in Hugh Grant just as High Fidelity did John Cusack, and now Fever Pitch pairs Drew Barrymore with Jimmy Fallon, and it's a natural fit. Fallon plays Ben as a regular guy, with no funny voices or takes or anything else that often tempts SNL players on the big screen.

And so, we watch Barrymore and Fallon, content in their predictable romantic comedy movements, without realizing Fever Pitch has something original to show us. There's a love triangle, as there often is, but this time, it's between Drew and Jimmy and the Boston Red Sox. Ben is obsessed with the Red Sox. Never mind that he's got Red Sox sheets and towels; he's never missed a home game, and considers his neighboring season-pass holders family. Winter Ben won Lindsey's heart. Summer Ben will be at the game if you need him.

And so this is our conflict: will Ben give up baseball to be with Lindsey? It's such a non-issue, but Fever Pitch goes a long way to show us that Lindsey's life as a baseball widow would be miserable, as would Ben having to miss a game once in a while. While we're battling our suspension of disbelief, the Farrelly brothers insert actual footage from the Red Sox recent winning season, games attended by Barrymore and Fallon, and I was sold. You'd be hard pressed to find an actor capable of expressing joy better than Drew Barrymore, and it's on full display in Fever Pitch. Lindsey and Ben jump, cheer, scream, dance and sing their little hearts out, and we realize: Ben and Lindsey are underdogs, just like the Red Sox, just like Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, just like most of us. Damn it, they got me. I hate when that happens.

The search for originality in comedy, especially romantic comedy, is tough because you have so many checkpoints to stop through. The couple has to meet in a goofy way, and then bicker or flirt until they're dating, and then there has to be a wacky misunderstanding or case of mistaken identity, which will break them up until they realize that they're meant to be together. There's usually a goofy best friend. With all of those requirements, it's hard to fit in any originality. Keeping the Faith tries, and comes close.

Keeping the Faith, like Fever Pitch, uses occupations as an obstacle on the way to true love. Jake, Brian and Anna grew up best friends, but now they're adults and Jake and Brian are both in love with Anna. The problem is that now Jake is Rabbi Jake, Brian is Father Brian, and Anna is a Hellbound Sinner who not only Owns a Cell Phone, but answers it when it rings. Man, what do they see in that whore?

And so Anna and Brian and Jake catch up on old times, and laugh and drink and give advice, and eventually there are heart-to-heart talks and almost-kisses, and hey, isn't one of these dudes supposed to be celibate? Keeping the Faith is pretty clever when Jake, Anna and Brian are all just friends. They're the kind of movie characters you could see yourself hanging out with; their conversations have such spark and chemistry, it's no question whether or not these people grew up together. Ah, but the genre demands romance, and a happy ending, so here we go.

Keeping the Faith was directed by its star, Edward Norton, who wants desperately for us to see how smart he is, as opposed to us just liking his movie. There's this endless opening sequence, explaining who's who and what they're doing now, when we would have gotten all that anyway. And there's an out-of-place scene of Father Brian getting drunk and questioning his faith that brings the movie way down at a crucial moment. The upshot is in the performances. As Rabbi Jake and Father Brian, Ben Stiller and Edward Norton are relaxed and funny, and because Jenna Elfman plays Anna, we never question why anyone would consider picking her over a religion. I mean, okay, she's no Drew Barrymore, but she's a fun time. Keeping the Faith, for about an hour in the middle, is pretty fun itself.

Fever Pitch: B+
Keeping the Faith: C+