I purchased Fever Pitch on DVD for my wife for Xmas and we watched it this past weekend. Fever Pitch was originally released in the UK in 1996 or 97, but has been available in the States only for a few years.
Many of the people who reviewed the movie on Amazon were offended that the video cover (perhaps just for the VHS tape?) has a drawing or picture of a man staring at a topless woman who has strategically placed soccer boots hanging from her neck. The woman’s face is obscured by the title. These reviewers compained that not only was the picture standard American sex-driven marketing dreck, but it was also irrelevant to what occurs in the movie. The picture they described is the same picture shown on the Amazon website for the DVD.
However, the cover photo on the DVD we received has a picture of Colin Firth yelling, presumably in support of Arsenal, and Ruth Gemmel in a short, slinky dress and high heels staring over her shoulder at him in contempt. The BlackStar website has a different composition of the photos with Gemmell on the far left and Firth on the far right.
Hmmm, is this a movie review or a video cover photo review? Anyway, Fever Pitch was quite entertaining as far as romantic comedies go, although I didn’t like it nearly as much as the book. It must have been a real challenge for Nick Hornby to convert his book to a screenplay. Many of the details that I, as a soccer fan, found interesting and hilarious in the book would not translate easily to a movie.
Firth’s character Paul, who is really a fictionalized version of Hornby, is a long-suffering supporter of Arsenal. If you’re an American baseball fan, think Chicago Cubs or Boston Red Sox. Until recent years, Arsenal were mediocre for long stretches, punctuated on occasion by a frustratingly close brush with winning the league. In most soccer leagues, finishing first at the end of the season is considered to be the biggest prize.
Speaking of Hornby, that’s supposedly him in an uncredited cameo as the coach of the school team that is getting skewered by Paul’s team “8 nil … or 9 nil” just after halftime.
If you’re a fan of Nick Hornby’s books, soccer/football, or Colin Firth, I definitely recommend that you watch this film. Unless you are only interested because of being a Colin Firth fan, I recommend even more highly that you read the book.
Excellent movie! It really works, on many levels. Anne liked it too. I watched it with my in-laws, and I know Anne was squirming at some of the swearing, but this was not nearly so bad as the time we watched “Kiss of the Spider Woman” with them.
Favorite line: “will you please please please please just f***ing f** off!”
-Paul