Fuera de juego

This film explores the life, thoughts and relationships of an obsessive sports fan. It happens to be have been made in England about a particularly dramatic title win (Arsenal's 1989 victory was the stuff of legend), but applies to obsessives everywhere, who pin all of their happiness on some team over which they can exert no control. The writing is insightful, for example "I don't know whether life is s*** because Arsenal are s***, or the other way around" will be recognised by any fan of a sporting (or political) team, and the central character's long-term reaction to the long-sought victory is spot on. The acting and direction are also spot on. The mellifluous Colin Firth leads an excellent ensemble, from which Mark Strong (as Firth's buddy) stands out. Like the best British films (Brassed Off, for example), this one has real situations and real, recognisable characters you care about, spiced with gentle comedy. I recommend this one warmly.

Fever Pitch may not be a great film, but it is certainly a wonderful, charming, pitch-perfect film.

On the surface, it is the story of a Peter/Pan who can't give up his obsession for a local Football Team.

The man in question, (an incredibly handsome Colin Firth), is a teacher of English at the high-school level. The teacher next door is a lovely young woman with the knick-name of "iron britches". Of course the predictable happens.

What is unpredictable is the painful growth of Colin's character, and his slow progress in being able to give up his team just enough to make room for an even greater and more important love, the teacher next door.

What I love best about this film is that Colin Firth here is NOT Mr. Darcy. Mr. Darcy would NEVER let his Lizzie see him in his Fire Engine RED and white Arsenal Boxer Shorts!

Here Mr. Firth is rough-edged and scruffy. A man who prefers to hang out with his mates drinking beer and holding a fatalistic view that his beloved Arsenal will NEVER win the Championship.

The charm of the film lies in the growth of this man/child and the patience and understanding of the woman who loves him and their slow but certain progress from attraction to real, lasting LOVE!

See it!! I happen to love soccer. All my children played it and now my grandchildren play it. I believe the rules are different for British Football, but those difference didn't take away from the thrill of watching Arsenal in action!

Any golf,football or baseball "widow" will understand and love this film!

Nick Hornby strikes again! I watched this movie for Colin Firth, and enjoyed it as a fan and as a discriminating viewer. The script is excellent, particularly the dialogue (particularly in one delightful restaurant scene). I found the acting and craftsmanship satisfactory - be warned that dialogue can be quiet, so listen hard through the accents. The film is delightfully British, so I highly recommend it for Anglophiles, and as Nick Hornby knows how to do, it is a nice mix of the ludicrous and the thoughtful. The relationship the movie centers around is really interesting to follow. We wonder what makes it tick, but Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell seem comfortable together, so it isn't unbelievable at all. I wasn't expecting "Fever Pitch" to be so good, but I find that I recommend it highly.

I am a middle-aged American woman who has never seen a soccer game and has never seen any kind of live sports game all the way through beyond Little League (3 brothers, 1 son). I live in a town where football is the main local religion. Nick Hornby's novel was a delight to read and really gave me some sense of the psychology as well as the anthropology of being a fan. I rented the movie because I wanted to SEE the novel: the stadium, the terraces, the colors, the craziness Hornby describes. Youtube and Wikipedia could tell me some about Alan Smith, Highbury, the Hillsborough tragedy, but not enough. The movie came through. Actual footage of games and scenes inside the stadium gave a powerful sense of what it's all about. The final sequence, in which various characters Paul's fandom has touched watch a championship game, was wonderfully moving. The plot has three characters--Paul the young fan, Paul the adult fan, and Sarah the outsider who is repelled by the irrationality, the loud and sweary masculinity of it all. The plot exists to allow Paul to expose, stubbornly as a child and articulately as an adult, what it means to be a fan. Sarah is there to force him into talking and thinking a bit about it. Both Pauls are marvelous. Colin Firth is amazing. His physical attractiveness is essential to the plot--it gets him into Sarah's bed so they can start talking about Arsenal-- and that simple fact leaves him huge amounts of room to be boyish, goofy, moody, clueless, innocent, and cruel.

Fantastic. I had the pleasure of going to Highbury (Arsenal Stadium) twice to see the Gunners play in real Premiership clashes against Sheffield Wednesday and Wimbledon, and the soccer fanaticism portrayed in the film is NOT hyperbolized at all. As a Yank, i felt like a right outsider, but i was hooked instantly when i exited the Underground station and was swept away in the program selling, chips devouring, pin swapping, memorabilia peddling madness that is English Football.

Additionally, Fever Pitch is the ONLY modernly set British film i've seen that did not contain a single refference to American culture, film, TV, music, nothing...

A totally home grown Brit flick which (to use an American sporting analogy) hits it out of the park. Shamelessly sublime.