I don’t know why I didn’t see this when it came out in 2005. I love baseball. I love sport’s movies. And I love Drew Barrymore. I vaguely remember a lot of friends not liking this film, saying it wasn’t funny enough, or that Drew and Jimmy didn’t have enough chemistry. I respectfully disagree. Jimmy Fallon was actually much better in this movie than I expected. I know he can do comedy, but his dramatic scenes are heartfelt, and he made me really believe that a man could be torn between his love for his favorite baseball team and the woman he just might want to spend the rest of his life with. Okay, maybe some of the comedy bits are a little forced, like Lindsey getting hit with a baseball when she’s too busy on her laptop to pay attention to the game in front of her, but it still works. Everything seems to click.

It has all the typical romantic comedy aspects that women love, but Fever Pitch has something for the guys too. That obsession Ben and his friends show throughout the story is very real, trust me, I know a lot of Red Sox fans. Any sports fans, even the not so obsessed ones, can understand Ben’s feelings on baseball. Your favorite team, even if they aren’t winning, never lets you down. Your team is always there for you. The Red Sox had a fairy tale season the year this movie was filmed. The footage of the games is actual footage. Actors aren’t out there pretending to play baseball. The team was actually playing a real game while film crews kept an eye on them. When they won the World Series of Baseball, Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore were on hand to celebrate with the team, and that makes the movie even more magical.

Even if you only slightly like romantic comedies, even if you aren’t crazy about sports films, all of the aspects of this film fit together in a strange way to make it fun and entertaining.