romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon, with frat-boy specialists the Farrelly Brothers at the helm? Ee-yeuch. Right? Wrong, actually. While it's a long way from being a good movie, or even a good romantic comedy, Perfect Catch (or Fever Pitch as it is being billed in the US) is a baseball version of Nick Hornby's football-based tale of sporting fanaticism and has enough charm and dry humour to entertain. Lindsey (Barrymore) initially thinks that Ben's obsession with the Boston Red Sox baseball team is an endearing little quirk - until the summer, and the new season, rolls around. Can Lindsey compete with Ben's appetite for watching grown men swing big sticks while wearing tight pants? Can Ben get Lindsey to see that her workaholism is no better or worse than his fanatical support for the Red Sox? The obstacles put in the way of the couple (who are surprisingly adept at generating a believable chemistry) are slight to the point of non-existent, resulting in a predictable tale that leans a little too heavily on its backdrop - whether or not the Red Sox can finally win the World Series after nearly a century of failure - to point up the message that love can conquer all, even impossible odds and childish obsession. Nevertheless, taken with a pinch of salt, Perfect Catch is entirely acceptable, undemanding feel-good fare that will smooth those first few fraught hours on a first date.
