Fever Pitch

1997 "Life Gets Complicated When You Love One Woman And Worship Eleven Men"
6.7| 1h42m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 04 April 1997 Released
Producted By: Scala Productions
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A romantic comedy about a man, a woman and a football team. Based on Nick Hornby's best selling autobiographical novel, Fever Pitch. English teacher Paul Ashworth believes his long standing obsession with Arsenal serves him well. But then he meets Sarah. Their relationship develops in tandem with Arsenal's roller coaster fortunes in the football league, both leading to a nail biting climax.

Genre

Comedy, Romance

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Director

David Evans

Production Companies

Scala Productions

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Fever Pitch Audience Reviews

Alicia I love this movie so much
Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.
Cebalord Very best movie i ever watch
Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
nutolm If you are looking to see a romantic comedy I would recommend this British film. It's funny, it's serious, and of course romantic, without being sentimental. The movie felt like a big smile, but the question is; can the love for football and the club Arsenal be combined with the love for a woman? Paul is obsessed with football and 'The Gunners', but Sarah has no idea what this game is all about.The writer Nick Hornby wrote this novel in the 80s, and he is also the man behind the script. He also has a little cameo as a coach for a boy's football team. The story takes place in 1989, and this proved to be an enjoyable and fun movie. I could see myself in my younger days watching the Norwegian team Rosenborg and British Manchester United play, and relating to this movie's depiction of enthusiasm, empathy, anxiety, and even grief, on behalf of the team.Fever Pitch rises above all those anonymous romantic comedies. There is something here that I've never seen before; the environment, the dialogues, and the actors; it has all made this story into something different. As Paul says; "There's always a reason to love what you love". That's passion. For the main character, Arsenal was the social channel to his family and friends, the team meant life and affiliation.Everything is told with intelligence and good humour. The actors gives us capturing performances, especially Colin Firth, he is sparkling with his growing dilemma - football or Sarah, or maybe both? This movie puts across the necessity to be thrilled by football - and of course by fellow humans. This movie for certain a feel good movie!
Framescourer Nick Hornby has made a reasonable living out of book that re-acclimatise age old blokey diversions with the mainstream. High Fidelity, a film about a record obsessive who comes to terms with regrets over previous girlfriends, was more successful generally. Fever Pitch deserves attention though as a well-acted, pleasantly scripted account of the same shortfalls and overlaps of growing up, this time centred around the obsession of football.Colin Firth, sporting a mop stolen from backstage at a Simply Red gig is the Arsenal compulsive, maybe not living and breathing the team but certainly wearing them. It's the high noon of 'cool Britannia' where women are getting used to the idea that not only thugs but also real men enjoy watching - indeed, following - football and this story is as much about Ruth Gemmell's Sarah coming to terms with that. Holly Aird and Mark Strong are the genre-satisfying confidants. It's a sine qua non for Arsenal supporters but all fans can enjoy it as well. 5/10
fedor8 The biggest problem with this film is that an opportunity was missed to comedically exploit football-fan fanaticism. Instead, sport-fanaticism is taken far too seriously, considering what it really is, and although there is some humour at its expense, there wasn't enough of it. Somehow too much time is spent on soppy relationship nonsense, which goes nowhere. Still, the film isn't boring, and occasionally provides amusing insight into the world of the mindless football fan. The ending, with the main character desperately trying not to watch a championship match and being totally negative, is quite amusing, and there should have been more of that.
adkmilkmaid Most of us either know an obsessive or are one ourselves. This film is about a man whose obsession with a football team has brought him years of comfort but also stunted his emotional development. Cocooned in his "family" of Arsenal fans, Paul Ashworth is clueless in real relationships. Colin Firth, most often known to fans as restrained and aristocratic Mr. Darcy, v. 1 or v. 2, is here rumpled and unshaven and wild-haired throughout. His voice as Paul is also quite different. I'm no expert on English accents, but he swallows his consonants and broadens some of his vowels. And instead of Firth's patented watchful smoulder, here when Paul is talking about his beloved football team -- confiding unnecessarily that he would "pay extra!" to live next door to the stadium -- his face is entirely unguarded, open, and vulnerable. Paul is a man-child. One can only agree when the love interest refers to him as "a 12-year-old."The movie has many delights: the great shaggy performance by Firth; the excellence of the writing; the truthfulness of the human observations (which pertain to many subjects beyond football); the comedy. However certain parts of the movie were frustrating for me, an American viewer. One: it's pitched to an English audience, of course, so the dialogue is very rapid and full of English slang. Without the consonants and crisp diction, and with a music soundtrack, the words can be very hard to follow. (I must have replayed "It's NOT the smoking, Steve. It's the crapness," half a dozen times before I could make it out.) I wanted to shake the director as I felt with only a very little tinkering, which would not have harmed the specific Englishness of the story, he could have created a world-wide hit. In my opinion it wasn't -- as has been written -- the background of football that kept this from happening; folks enter into entire fantasy worlds a la J.R.R. Tolkein without batting an eyelid. It was the blurry, difficult-to-follow audio! Viewers need to be able to understand what's being said! (Non-Brits may profit by turning on subtitles.) Two: a lot of the cinematography looked cheap and poorly lit. Three: I would have added a bit more to flesh out the romance, as this one, as written, though fun, was uneven and appears doomed.Here is an audio clip from a Colin Firth fan site which illustrates the charms and frustrations of this film:http://www.firthessence.net/audio/football.mp3(a) Different and interesting Colin Firth accent. (b) Terrific portrayal of obsession. (c) Wonderfully written lines that I had to strain to catch. (d) Great music that unfortunately made it even harder to do (c).However, the film is well worth the small struggle (if you're not English) to decipher. Enjoy!