Very Cool!!!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I didn't care for the main character's personality. He's the type of guy I would never waste my time on. Being a big sports fan is one thing; being completely obsessed is another. It's hard to root for a man who seems to care more about a sport's team than he does about the people who love him. I feel the main female could have done better in choosing a man. At least the guy in the American version was sort of likable. I wish the ending would have actually worked out the problems the couple was having, and it didn't really. It just basically leads you to believe everything turns out okay. Exempting the main guy, the other characters had okay personalities. The movie was fairly entertaining. I don't regret watching it, but I probably will not watch it again.

Teacher Paul is an obsessive football supporter, his love of Arsenal F.C. knows no bounds. Sarah, who teaches at the same school as Paul, has very little in common with Paul. Inevitably they fall for each other, and inevitably Paul's love of The Arsenal starts to drive them apart.Nick Hornby is a very popular British writer who's other notable works comprise High Fidelity and About A Boy. With Fever Pitch he documented about the triumphant football season that Arsenal had in 1988/1989, while simultaneously outlaying his own stress inducing personal life that ran parallel with his football passion. In the novel, which became a monster seller, Hornby was able to perfectly form just how passionate and ridiculous the hardened football supporter can be {I've been there and done that myself thank you very much}, and tho some of it is expectedly lost in translation to the screen, the core essence is all there to make it a winning adaptation.Tho laced with truly funny sequences and English soccer in jokes, Fever Pitch is also a most tender and heartfelt piece. Parential problems are handled tidily by director David Evans, and crucially the female axis in this male dominated story is very well portrayed. Both Hornby and Evans do however owe a big debt of gratitude to its leading stars. Colin Firth {Paul} and Ruth Gemmell {Sarah} are wonderful, both understated and both providing an intimacy that at first didn't seem possible. Coming as it does in this particular season, the film encompasses the Hillsborough tragedy that left 96 football supporters tragically killed. This is expertly handled by all involved, with Firth particularly towering whilst acting from an armchair as he comes to terms with both the events on the TV screen, and his query laden girlfriend. Which leaves us with what exactly? Well it's a very British film, and it was no surprise to see it remade as an American piece in 2005. Funny and tender probably best sums up this 1997 film, obviously not as good as the book they say, but it's a mighty fine effort regardless. 7/10

Often alluded to as ' The Beautiful Game', that famous night in May 1989 exemplifies exactly why football is worthy of such an endearing nickname. And I'm not only talking on the level of how, against all odds, the resilient Arsenal snatched the title from the mighty Liverpool with practically the last kick of the season; Nor only on the level of the soaring emotional significance of that night for the losing team and their fans, who hoped to dedicate their almost-certain-victory to the 90 Liverpool fans crushed to death just a month earlier in football's most horrific tragedy; and neither on the level that the game's ball-for-ball account was delivered by one of the greatest commentators in living memory , Mr Football himself Brian Moore (R.I.P.) in which he produced one of the most famous lines in sporting history 'It's up for grabs now!'. In the light of the movie being discussed I'm going to speak on level that will further emphasise Hornby's point on fanatism and how ridiculously far some of us will take it. Yes, the championship decider between Liverpool and Arsenal had all of the above and more, but the very first thing that springs to my mind with its every mention is its aesthetics. In my opinion that night showcased 2 of the most (for lack of a better word) stunning kits to ever grace a football pitch. Both adorned with the famous 3 Adidas stripes down the sides and the old-school leaf; Liverpool in flaming all red sporting the cursive 'Candy' logo across the front in white, Arsenal in banana yellow with dark navy almost black sleeves and shorts with the neat 'JVC' logo printed on the front. I'm not sure which one I preferred but if I was to take this even further and look at the game on a metaphorical level as the 'Battle of the Shirts', I think Arsenal shaded it …just! Forget Football Factory and Greenstreet Hooligans. For all you non-football fans who wish to learn more about REAL supporters and their so-called idiosyncratic passion for their team, watch this movie. But bear in mind, as good as it is, it barely combs the fringes of Nick Hornby's more elaborate hilariously witty novel .I also recommend that you watch the last 5 minutes of the Liverpool-Arsenal championship decider of 1989. Trust me, it surpasses any Hollywood script on all levels; audio, visual, dramatic, emotional.… Fever Pitch!

Most of us either know an obsessive or are one ourselves. This film is about a man whose obsession with a football team has brought him years of comfort but also stunted his emotional development. Cocooned in his "family" of Arsenal fans, Paul Ashworth is clueless in real relationships. Colin Firth, most often known to fans as restrained and aristocratic Mr. Darcy, v. 1 or v. 2, is here rumpled and unshaven and wild-haired throughout. His voice as Paul is also quite different. I'm no expert on English accents, but he swallows his consonants and broadens some of his vowels. And instead of Firth's patented watchful smoulder, here when Paul is talking about his beloved football team -- confiding unnecessarily that he would "pay extra!" to live next door to the stadium -- his face is entirely unguarded, open, and vulnerable. Paul is a man-child. One can only agree when the love interest refers to him as "a 12-year-old."The movie has many delights: the great shaggy performance by Firth; the excellence of the writing; the truthfulness of the human observations (which pertain to many subjects beyond football); the comedy. However certain parts of the movie were frustrating for me, an American viewer. One: it's pitched to an English audience, of course, so the dialogue is very rapid and full of English slang. Without the consonants and crisp diction, and with a music soundtrack, the words can be very hard to follow. (I must have replayed "It's NOT the smoking, Steve. It's the crapness," half a dozen times before I could make it out.) I wanted to shake the director as I felt with only a very little tinkering, which would not have harmed the specific Englishness of the story, he could have created a world-wide hit. In my opinion it wasn't -- as has been written -- the background of football that kept this from happening; folks enter into entire fantasy worlds a la J.R.R. Tolkein without batting an eyelid. It was the blurry, difficult-to-follow audio! Viewers need to be able to understand what's being said! (Non-Brits may profit by turning on subtitles.) Two: a lot of the cinematography looked cheap and poorly lit. Three: I would have added a bit more to flesh out the romance, as this one, as written, though fun, was uneven and appears doomed.Here is an audio clip from a Colin Firth fan site which illustrates the charms and frustrations of this film:http://www.firthessence.net/audio/football.mp3(a) Different and interesting Colin Firth accent. (b) Terrific portrayal of obsession. (c) Wonderfully written lines that I had to strain to catch. (d) Great music that unfortunately made it even harder to do (c).However, the film is well worth the small struggle (if you're not English) to decipher. Enjoy!