“So I thought my summer events were over for the year. Then I got a bit of a surprise one. We were getting close to quitting time at work, and I was giving my usual news sites a quick glance over, to make sure I hadn’t missed anything important in the past hour that I was in meetings. And then I saw it, an article on Boston.com advertising a movie night at Fenway. Wait, so you’re telling me I can watch a movie at Fenway park tonight? And it’s a Boston movie that features Fenway? And it’s one I haven’t blogged before? And they’re also touting photo op time before the film, so I could presumably take my traveling alien friend for pix? This is totally worth skipping yoga for!
After running home for a leisurely dinner, once I finished the movie I’d started the day before, I hopped on the bus down to the park. I arrived around 7:10, giving me twenty minutes in the advertised photo op window, that would then give me 20 min for a pit stop and a soft serve chocolate ice cream acquisition. Let’s do this!
I walked towards the first entry way to the seating area, and got in a line of people walking down to the field. I took pictures of Marty from every possible angle as we made our way towards the Green Monstah. The path continued around the field, to the dugout, near where I had started my trek. I was able to jump in there and get a couple of quick pix before the 7:30 deadline hit and we were sent on our way. Not much later I was sitting in a seat behind the visitor’s dugout, ice cream in hand (or more like in the cupholder) ready for the movie.
I’d seen Fever Pitch once before, and I wasn’t too impressed. No secret that I don’t care for rom coms, and the ones that Drew Barrymore stars in tend to be especially goopy and dumb. Okay, The Wedding Singer is awesome, but you gotta admit it still fits the bill. Anyways. I had been thinking of giving it a second chance since it is such a classic Boston film.
Right so, rom com with Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Barrymore’s Lindsay is a high ranking employee at a big deal firm who is up for a major (and time consuming) promotion. Fallon’s Ben is a teacher (I found it annoying how much they insisted on calling him “”school teacher””) with a pretty rabit Red Sox obsession. How can the girl with the demanding job connect with the boy with the consuming obsesion? And what hijinks will they get into along the way? (Pardon my gag reflex)
On the rom com side, it checks all the boxes for each over used trope. However, as a Boston girl, I am actively choosing to ignore that. Looking thru dirty water colored glasses, it’s such a great love letter to a team from its most loyal fans, and I’ve walked thru the Fenway area on game days enough times to know they (we?) truly are deeply in love with our team. Personally, I prefer basketball, but if we are talking baseball, then yeah Go Sox!
For me, the fun of this movie is watching for the Boston references and seeing the landmarks on display. And sitting in the biggest of the featured landmarks while watching it on screen was surreal. But even better than sitting in Fenway to watch a movie partly set in Fenway, was sitting with a Fenway loving Boston crowd while watching. Reactions to the relationship aspects were minimal. Reactions to Boston and the Sox were abundant. No tidbit of history or on screen cheer went by without whoops and hollers from the crowd. Talk of the Sox winning the Series was met with riotous applause. And the game montage that included Sweet Caroline? Oh you bet the entire stadium (even if only partly filled) loudly sang along, and were even louder for the callbacks which weren’t in the audio of the film. Sure, I may have preferred hearing Dropkick Murphy’s Tessie in a couple scenes, but Sweet Caroline was pretty great too!
So maybe when judging it on the same standard as any other movie, it’s subpar (enough to send Jimmy Fallon running back to TV, where I’m sure we can all agree he’s been wonderful). Still, I can’t think of a better movie to watch in such an incredible venue. If you’re gonna watch this, odds are, you won’t be watching it at Fenway. In that case, be sure and surround yourself with some loyal Boston Strong peeps to share in the experience.”