The Perfect Catch film review

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THE PERFECT CATCH

Five years after High Fidelity was transplanted from North London to Chicago for the film version, Nick Hornby again finds one of his books meeting Hollywood on unfamiliar ground. This time though not only has the location changed, but the very sport the book was about. Fever Pitch detailed one man's paralyzing obsession with football, in particular Arsenal. In this, the second screen adaptation of his best selling novel, for North London read Boston, for football read baseball and for Fever Pitch read The Perfect Catch.

But as with High Fidelity, while few of Hornby's original words remain, what does make it on to the screen is the real spirit of his work. The Perfect Catch is an utterly charming and funny tale of a threesome in which the third party is a baseball team.

Little Gertie from ET may now be 30 years old, but Barrymore has lost little of her cuteness. She has proved in The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates her gift for romantic comedy. And while she and Jimmy Fallon lack the on-screen chemistry she shares with Adam Sandler, the strong script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandell goes a long way to concealing the fact.

Fallon plays Ben, a high school geometry teacher hopelessly devoted to the ill-fated Boston Red Sox who haven't won the World Series since 1918. A season ticket holder, he plans his life around the Red Sox schedule. It's the reason he remains single. "It's been a problem with me and women," admits Ben, whose apartment is a shrine to the Red Sox. "It's like you live in the gift shop," observes Lindsey Meeks (Barrymore), an ambitious high-flying business consultant, when she comes to visit. "Sometimes I like to be eleven years old," explains Ben. Growing up is something Ben has been doing his best to avoid, but when faced with the prospect of losing Lindsey, it's something he finally has to deal with.

Under the direction of the unusually restrained Farrelly Brothers, The Perfect Catch captures perfectly the dilemma of a sports-obsessed man forced to make the agonizing choice between a woman and his team. It's a dilemma compounded by the fact that the Red Sox are enjoying their best season in more than 80 years. The ever-sweet Barrymore is plucky and endearing as Lindsey, with her facial characteristics prompting Dan to compare her to an "adorable stroke victim." Even the normally annoying Fallon is appealing as the passionate and childish Dan.