Fever Pitch

Football mania – what’s it all about? It’s like a mood-altering drug: life is sweet if your team wins; life sucks if it doesn’t. I’ve seen the long faces at work the morning after a defeat and have heard the commiseration: “We were robbed, he was miles off-side, Southgate blew it.” How can a mere sport make fans so dedicated, they’d travel to the end of the universe to see a match as if it were some religious pilgrimage? How can a mere sport command the kind of unconditional adoration any relationship would envy? I don’t pretend to understand it, and as an American I can safely say we have nothing that comes near that kind of football fanaticism in the States.

Fever Pitch, however, based on Nick Hornby’s book of the same name, captures the essence of football fever, with its infectious highs and devastating lows. Paul (Colin Firth) is football fan extraordinnaire. A teacher of English at a London comprehensive, he meets new member of staff, the very uptight Sarah (Ruth Gemmell), who initially seems resentful of Paul’s popularity with the students. After a few awkward encounters in the corridors, they end up shagging.

With a few flashbacks to Paul’s childhood, you witness Paul get his first taste of football – he’s hooked, and so will you be. As Sarah and Paul’s relationship progresses, you realise he’s not only obsessed with football, it’s his life. But he becomes torn between his love for Arsenal and his love for Sarah; her difficulty with what she feels is just a stupid sport turns out to be the biggest obstacle in their relationship. She believes nothing else matters to him and during an argument asks him: “What else do you have?” He responds: “At least I’m passionate about something.”

Sarah learns she is pregnant and agonises over whether to keep the child. When Paul finds out he’s an expectant father, he has a revelation. Perhaps he has given too much of his life to football – perhaps it’s time to let go. In his own bumbling way, he proposes saying: “A wife and a baby – yeah, that’ll do me.” But how ever endearing Paul is, Sarah remains unconvinced. Though she struggles to understand Paul’s fanaticism, she never gives him an ultimatum, which is much to the character’s credit. But having said that, the movie’s biggest weakness is that Sarah’s character is unremarkable. I found myself wishing she’d wipe that stupid look of indignation off her face. I thought Hornby, who wrote the screenplay, should have at least given her a personality. But Firth was brilliant. I was pleasantly surprised at how convincing his portrayal of a lad was – a far cry from Pride and Prejudice’s posh Mr Darcy.

The worst day of Paul’s life comes not when he loses out on a promotion at work, nor when he loses Sarah, but the day Arsenal loses to Derby County. He fears the defeat is an omen – that Arsenal won’t win the league. In trying to convey his distress to Sarah, he asks: “Haven’t you ever wanted anything in life for that long?” During their on-again, off-again relationship, Paul gradually transforms. Arsenal eventually wins the league and only then does Paul feel ready to cut the umbilical cord. The movie ends happily, with a significant reflection: “I have my own life now and my successes and failures aren’t inextricably linked to Arsenal’s.”

Fever Pitch is very pleasant. It’s full of pithy dialogue and funny one-liners that help a football rookie like me understand the furore. You’ll find yourself rooting for Arsenal and wishing you too were making that pilgrimage. I somehow expected Fever Pitch to be nothing more than an amusing look into the world of football freaks. But it’s not just about that – it’s about camaraderie and, moreover, about unconditional love. All I have to say is, Go Go Gunners!!!

Reviewed by Donatella Montrone