"This movie is truly delightful, a real must-see, even if you’re not a sports fan."
Jeanne Kaplan KAPLAN VS. KAPLAN
"....a truly winning romantic comedy."
Erin Free FILMINK
"It's frequently amusing and awfully sweet."
Bob Townsend ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
"A movie worth catching."
Bill Muller ARIZONA REPUBLIC
"Do not make the mistake of thinking it is a baseball movie. It is a movie about how men and women, filled with love and motivated by the best will in the world, simply do not speak the same emotional language."
Roger Ebert CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
"It's nice to have two cute, intelligent, unsure, funny protagonists and still believe in their connection to each other, plus the additional romance of obsessions."
Karina Montgomery CINERINA
"As a Yankees fan, it pains me to admit it, but Fever Pitch, like the Red Sox at the 2004 World Series, is a winner."
Scott Nash THREE MOVIE BUFFS
"... it's a lot of fun."
Sandra Hall SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"The most consistently funny motion picture of the year so far, and also its sweetest. Once over, audiences won't so much walk out of the theater as they will float out."
Dustin Putman THEMOVIEBOY.COM
"'It's cute' will be the overwhelming coo that greets this sweet meetup between Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore."
Lindy T Shepherd ORLANDO WEEKLY
The Inside Story
"An ending that sends you out of the theater smiling from ear to ear." Jackie K Cooper JACKIEKCOOPER.COM
Reviewing film is like someone fossicking in an old creek bed or sweeping the local beach with a metal detector. Each is hoping to make an exciting find. That special moment when you see that golden glint amongst the gravel, when the alarm on the detector starts ringing in your ear and you start digging into the sand or when you've had a run of 'so, so' films and you suddenly find a real treasure. That's the feeling many are getting after seeing the Farrelly Brothers latest film, the romantic comedy "The Perfect Catch". But there is a catch. You must erase the thought from your mind that "The Perfect Catch" is centred around a baseball theme. Don't, what ever you do let it get in the way of you seeing this film because if you do, you will be missing out on an infectiously funny, romantic comedy, that really does lift the spirit. And already I can hear some people groaning. Are you out of your cottin pickin mind Richard? Aren't those Farrelly boys the nuts who brought us "Dumb and Dumber" and the awful "Shallow Hal"? Of course they are, but who gives a toss, Peter and Bobby have, with "The Perfect Catch" shown us that there talents extend way beyond the whacky comedy they've been known for. Not that it's bad to be involved with whacky comedies because a big chunk of cinemagoers found a lot to laugh about with "Dumb and Dumber" [which took $US246,200,000 worldwide], "Shallow Hal" and "Stuck On You". And while "Shallow Hal" contained a great social message and a lesson in life for some in it's audiences and anyway it wasn't that bad. "Obviously, we have a history of making movies that are different from The Perfect Catch," admits Peter Farrelly. "This is a good, old-fashioned love story. It doesn’t call for big, broad gags and outlandish humor. It’s a character-driven comedy, and it’s set in the real world. So we had to lobby hard to be considered. And, fortunately, Flower Films was able to let us onboard." Peter received the Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel script from his brother Bobby. "My brother read it first, and he called me. So I picked it up, started reading, and by the time I got to page 50, I started making phone calls of my own, saying 'I’ve got to get in on this.' The script was that good. I felt like we could have shot it the next day." It seems everyone who sees the finished product likes it but that script had everyone involved especially producing partners Drew Barrymore and Nancy Juvonen from Flower Films very excited. "I just loved the script," Nancy Juvonen recalls. "Then our head of development Gwenn Stroman, read it, and she really embraced it. So we gave it to Drew. Now Drew likes to read scripts on airplanes. On rare occasions, only when Drew really loves a script, she’ll call me from an airplane phone. The first thing she said was, We have to make this movie!" "What drew me to The Perfect Catch", Barrymore says, "is that it’s first and foremost a love story. You could remove the baseball component, and the questions it asks would remain the same: How much do you have to change to have a successful relationship? To what to degree do you accept a person for who they are and just work with it? I think those are themes that any couple can relate to." See, what did I tell you? Forget the baseball theme! This is a good old-fashioned love story with a belly full of laughs. When it came to scripting "The Perfect Catch", Ganz and Mandel made it clear they didn't want to 'americanize' author Nick Hornby’s work which had already made it on to the big screen with the film "Fever Pitch" which starred Colin Firth as an obsesses English Soccer fan. "We really embraced the idea of making a classic-style romantic comedy," says Ganz. "It was a real love affair for us to become immersed in the genre and write a script about which everyone would say, 'Yeah, that’s the stuff. That’s how I remember romantic comedies.' So writing The Perfect Catch meant a lot to us." "We found that romantic comedies aren’t really romantic comedies anymore," adds Mandel. "We wanted to write a romantic comedy, with two people in love standing toe to toe." What makes that concept work so well is the films two leads, Drew Barrymore ["Altered States"] and Jimmy Fallon ["Taxi"].
And that brings up something else you need to put aside [unless of course you enjoyed it], Jimmy Fallon's feature debut co-starring with Queen Latifah in the film, "Taxi". "The Perfect Catch" is, to make a pun, a far better vehicle for Fallon who works so well with the delightful Drew Barrymore who just continues to go from strenth to strength with her acting and producing career. From the beginning, Barrymore made no secret about the fact that she wanted Jimmy Fallon starring opposite her. "I had worked with Jimmy on ‘Saturday Night Live’ a few times, and I’ve always admired him as a comedian," Drew Barrymore says. "I thought The Perfect Catch would give him an opportunity to do something different." "Jimmy brought a carefree, fun-loving feeling to the set," Peter Farrelly says. "And so did Drew. They’re both extremely likable, as performers and as people." Bobby Farrelly adds "Ben is a man, but he’s still a boy at heart. It’s the boy in him that loves the baseball, who loves all these things that he can’t let go of." As part of researching his role Jimmy Fallon speant time at the home of the Red Sox Baseball Team, the famed Fenway Park remains, much like it did the day it opened on April 20, 1912. "I ran into these incredible fans before and after the Red Sox games," says Fallon. "I got really caught up in their enthusiasm and the whole Fenway Park experience. It’s just an incredible place. And it’s a park. It’s not Fenway 'Stadium'. It’s intimate. I’ve heard players say they can actually feel the heat of the crowd when they’re down on the field. It’s amazing." Production Designer Maher Ahmad added color to Jimmy's character by designing his apartment with a real Red Sox theme replicating the Fenway Park’s famed outfield wall, the Green Monster, on one of Ben’s living room walls. "We wanted to avoid overdoing it, making the things in the apartment look too geeky or pedestrian," Ahmad explained. "Ben is an intelligent person. He’s a teacher and well educated, so I wanted to give the apartment a touch of sophistication." Filming at the famed home of the Red Sox fulfilled an ambition for the Farrelly Brothers and yes, the scenes were shot at times when matches were in progress. Shooting took ten days and five of those were game days. "We didn’t want to abuse the good will of the Red Sox organization and fans," says Peter Farrelly. "Especially on game days. The fans are there to watch a ballgame. They don’t want their view of the field blocked by a bunch of guys trying to make a movie." "I don’t know if anything will ever compare to the experience of filming at Fenway," says Bobby Farrelly. "To be there capturing it all on film was magic." But here's the real magic behind this story. "The miracle, the absolute phenomenon" as Drew Barrymore calls it happened. The Red Sox broke their losing streak. They started winning. The production team got 'Red Sox Fever', which wasn't helped by the fact that Peter Farrelly had set up two monitors. One showed filming and the other showed the Red Sox games live. It was nerve wracking for Barrymore who recalls, "I got incredibly superstitious. I didn’t want to talk about it with anyone. I was afraid I was going to jinx them." Suddenly having the Red Sox winning now created a huge problem. As I've already noted, everyone loved the Ganz and Mandell script and up till this point it was perfect. Now the screenwriters would have to rework the script. "It was a lot of work for Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell," Peter Farrelly says. "They had to keep updating all the time. Luckily, though, only the last 10 percent of the movie was affected." Now if you're thinking that the film sounds a bit too sporty, read what Drew Barrymore had to say about her experience. "I was such a newcomer to the temple of baseball when I came onto this film. This was partly intentional, because my character doesn’t know about it, either. But the more I’ve learned about baseball, and especially the story of the Red Sox, which is romantic, heart-wrenching and full of superstition, the more I see that the Red Sox’s journey is wonderful parallel to the love story we’re telling. "The Perfect Catch" asks, if you struggle to believe in something, can you really make it happen? And I think the answer is, yes." "The Perfect Catch" is full of surprises so please don't let anyone reveal the ending to you as it will destroy the magic of what is a very entertaining, romantic comedy.
Crew Bytes
"THE PERFECT CATCH" was .......
directed by Bobby Farrelly ["There's Something About Mary", "Me, Myself & Irene", "Shallow Hal" and "Stuck On You"] and Peter Farrelly ["Dumb & Dumber", "Kingpin", "Me, Myself & Irene" and "Osmosis Jones"]; screenplay by Lowell Ganz ["City Slickers I & II", "Mr. Saturday Night", "Multiplicity", "Where The Heart Is" and "Robots"] and Babaloo Mandel ["Spies Like Us", "Parenthood", "A League of Their Own", "Forget Paris" and "Edtv"]; adapted from the novel by Nick Hornby ["Fever Pitch", "High Fidelity" and "About a Boy"]; costume design by Sophie Carbonell ["Four Dogs Playing Poker", "Sweet Home Alabama", "Legally Blonde I & II" and "Shall We Dance"]; production design by Maher Ahmad ["Miami Blues", "U.S. Marshalls", "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" and "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous"]; edited by Alan Baumgarten ["The Lawnmower Man", "Excessive Force", "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" and "Meet the Fockers"]; cinematography by Greg Le Duc ["The Perfect Catch"] and Matthew F Leonetti ["Another 48 Hours", "Angels In The Outfield", "Rush Hour 2", "The Butterfly Effect" and "Dawn of the Dead"]; original music by Craig Armstrong ["The Bone Collector", "Love Actually", "The Clearing" and "Ray"] the producers include Alan Greenspan ["Donnie Brasco", "200 Cigarettes", "Pushing Tin", "My Little Eye" and "A Good Woman"] and Nancy Juvonen ["Never Been Kissed", "Charlie's Angels I & II", "Donnie Darko" and "50 First Dates"].
Casting About
"THE PERFECT CATCH" stars .......
Drew Barrymore ["Never Been Kissed", "Riding in Cars With Boys", "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", "Charlie's Angels I & II" and "50 First Dates"]; Jimmy Fallon ["Taxi"]; James B Sikking ["The Electric Horseman", "Soul Man", "Final Approach" and "The Pelican Brief"]; JoBeth Williams ["Wyatt Earp", "Jungle 2 Jungle", "Repossessed" and "Into the Fire"]; Lenny Clarke ["Two If By Sea", "Me, Myself & Irene", "Stuck On You" and "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"]; Ione Skye ["Jump", "The Good Doctor", "Return To Babylon" and "The Clinic"]; KaDee Strickland ["Girl, Interrupted", "The Grudge", "The Stepford Wives" and "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid"]; Marissa Jaret Winokur ["Never Been Kissed", "Teaching Mrs. Tingle", "American Beauty", "Amy's Orgasm" and "Now You Know"]; Isabella Fink ["Don't Say a Word" and "Goose!"] Charlotte Sullivan ["The Legend of Gator Face", "Harriet the Spy", "Shadow Builder" and "How to Deal"] and Jason Spevack ["The School", "Terminal Venus" and "The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico"] as 7 year old Ben.
What It's All About
"A sweet diversion that scores a base hit at every trip to the plate." Forrest Hartman RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
When High School Teacher Ben Wrightman and highly ambitious consultant Lindsay Meeks meet there's an instant attraction. Lindsay thinks he's just perfect. Ben just loves her. Romance is blossoming even if Lindsays friends think he seems to be too good a catch. There have been warning signs for Lindsay but let's face it, there's a lot of guys who collect sports memorabilia. As winter turns to spring the horrible truth will come out. Ben has only one great love in his life. The Red Sox baseball team. And the season is about to get under way. It's batter up in the race for loves pennant. Will love win out? Will Ben strike out?
The Verdict
"There are romantic comedies and there are 'romantic' comedies. "The Perfect Catch" falls neatly into the latter, 'romantic' comedies that really do connect with an audience. Forget "The Perfect Catch" has a baseball theme and just go see it. You'll leave the theatre totally uplifted by the experience. This really is sweet, cute, little charmer that's guaranteed to put a great big smile on your face. Very Recommended."
The Cast
Drew Barrymore
Jimmy Fallon
James B Sikking
JoBeth Williams
Jason Spevack
Jack Kehler
Scott H Severance
Jessamy R Finet
Maureen Keiller
Lenny Clarke
Ione Skye
KaDee Strickland
Marissa Jaret Winokur
Evan Helmuth
Brandon Craggs
Brett Murphy
Isabella Fink
Miranda Black
Greta Onieogou
Johnny Sneed
Michael Rubenfeld
Willie Garson
Armando Riesco
Zen Gesner
Siobhan Fallon Hogan
Mark Andrada
Charlotte Sullivan
Scott Desano
Lizz Alexander
Shary Guthrie
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Lindsey Meeks
Ben
Doug Meeks
Maureen Meeks
Ben in 1980
Al
Artie
Theresa
Viv
Uncle Carl
Molly
Robin
Sarah
Troy
Casey
Ryan
Audrey
Carrie
Tammy
Chris
Ian
Kevin
Gerard
Steve
Lana
Ezra
Spin Instructor
Binocular Guy
Charlene
Christie
The Crew
Directed by Bobby Farrelly & Peter Farrelly
Adapted from the novel "Fever Pitch" by Nick Hornby
Screenplay by Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel
Produced by Drew Barrymore/Alan Greenspan/Nancy Juvonen
Produced by Gil Netter /Amanda Posey/Bradley Thomas
Original Music by Craig Armstrong
Cinematography by Greg Le Duc & Matthew F Leonetti
Film Editing by Alan Baumgarten
Casting by Justine Baddeley
Production Design by Maher Ahmad
Art Direction by Brandt Gordon
Set Decoration by Jaro Dick
Costume Design by Sophie Carbonell
Production supervisor Adam McCarthy
Run Time 103 minutes
Rated M [AUST]
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