Fever Pitch, Kicking a Grand Slam in the game of Football

If I had to pick a single genre of film as the most annoyingly cliché, it would be Romantic Comedy. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

Boy meets girl, boy thinks that girl is pretty; girl takes a second to think about boy, and thinks that boy is kind of cute. Boy clumsily asks girl out, she thinks that his stumbling words and poorly dressed manner is adorable. A montage showing months of dating behavior buries the audience in cuteness and giggles, as we’re subjected to their adorable courtship.

Then we witness, the “point of contention” in the relationship. His issues with commitment, her ex-husband that she’s still in love with, and the ever-popular illegitimate child that has been hidden in the background. This issue takes 45 agonizing minuets to soothe through, and ends with one half of the couple being told that they need to change for the relationship to continue. Often with an forcedly adorable moment of misunderstanding, generally represented by an attractive member of the opposite sex opening a door.

Fever Pitch almost falls into this stereotype, but manages to hang from the lip of the Green Monster by its celluloid fingertips; and drop a decent love story into your lap.

I’m a Sox fan, born and raised. It’s in my blood; I remember all of the games pictured with crystal clarity. Including the infamous Buckner moment; which was spliced into a fantastic comedy bit. Seeing my home team win the World Series again was heart warming, and tears came to my eyes. But that wasn’t the highlight of the movie for me.

The highlight of the film caught me by surprise, as it didn’t fit the Romantic Comedy niche. She had to change just as much as he did for the relationship to work out. There wasn’t a one sided magical solution to the relationship, neither one of them was forced to become someone that they weren’t. That alone makes this a romantic comedy worth watching. Then there's the Red Sox...