Starring: Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore
Cert: PG
Released: 19th August 2005

Ben (Fallon) is a contented teacher in Boston and also a fan of the local baseball team, the Red Sox. He has been a fan since he was seven and, now he's thirty, he's a really big fan. He's got the season tickets, the books of statistics, the wallpaper and the underwear. So any woman who comes into his life has to understand and fit in around the season's fixtures.

Up to the plate steps Lindsey (Barrymore), a career driven woman who has only ever had disasterous relationships with like-minded, goal-orientated men but when Ben asks her out something just clicks between them.

And then the baseball season starts and she discovers how intense Ben's passion for the game really is.

The Perfect Catch is 'based' on Nick Hornby's novel, Fever Pitch, and he actually has a producer's credit so we can presume it all went through with his approval.

In much the same way that our Fever Pitch was successfully marketed as a date film that both sexes would enjoy, this too has an element of joint appeal but overall is liable to find major disinterest from the male population on the basis of the sport. Really, can baseball be equated with football?

Sure the obsession might be there and there is a similar team history of loss and failure but the obvious missing elements from this and the original is how deep the passion goes. In Fever Pitch the fanaticism started as a bonding experience with Paul's (Colin Firth) father and that passion slowly crept it's way into the rest of his family; it influenced his friends and his work.

In The Perfect Catch it's just him and a few mates. A back-story of what kept him going is almost totally brushed aside and with that, a whole lot of sympathy and empathy. He's just a bit of an odd bloke.
That aside, it is a light-hearted romp with credible performances, some slapstick, a risible script with moments of 'out loud' chuckles. It does take a lot of work to get any on-screen chemistry between the leads. Barrymore is all too used to playing kooky-love-interest opposite a comedian lead so breezes through, and Fallon is really amiable, competent and funny so the problem must be in the script. Again, I find myself saying, 'Well, in the original,' they were both teachers so initially had something in common to fan the sparks so why stick to the cliché formula of having to have absolute opposites as if that adds a comedy element?

Directed by the Farrelly brothers you might expect their usual blend of off-the-wall grossness but it's all fully held back to make a whimsical, not unpleasant, but instantly forgettable film.