Fever Pitch 1997 by AverageMansReviews
Review Time
Warning:
there is a real life football tragic incident depicted momentarily in this
film.
Come on the Arsenal!: Briefly; we meet Paul Ashworth [Younger: Luke Aikman/Older: Colin Firth:] we get to witness his lifelong love affair with Arsenal FC; he has been waiting so many years for them to be Champions of England once again; this story sounds familiar; birds like he is also a teacher of English and coach of their football team, he is a laid-back character; he meets the school's new I am going to say history teacher; Sarah Hughes [Ruth Gemmell:] she on the other hand is by comparison very uptight, regimental and their classrooms are next to one another and the like one another.
Generally speaking: the character developments; I have just realised there
is a lot of exposition character developments as it relates to Ashworth, which
for most of the time is fine, but here is what I have just realised; if you're
going to spend this amount of time doing this level of exposition... surely you
are going to use it in the present?... No... I mean we get it he loves Arsenal
FC, but other than that this is a waste of exposition, from the aspect of okay
to learn about the present we need to know about the past... okay we understand
that now, what about the present and future? That kind of half do these things
and then things cool off and then they'll back on again; in a nutshell for now
because I will talk about it later on realising what I have just realised I
really can't stand the end of this movie; so if you want me to be honest the
framework and consequently pacing broadly speaking is okay; once it settles
down for a while it does get better, but then again you always have the risk of
being lifted up and taken somewhere else in time and place and on top of that
we also have now and again narration from Ashworth
Action,
art and comedy; I like 95% of the football component and the historical art to
this film; I will make reference later on to the 5% I didn't like for obvious
reasons which later on will become 100% transparent; as they don't deal
respectfully with this incident and I am just remembered there is a point where
it keeps flickering past history and present the history as it switches back
and forth between younger Ashworth and the older Ashworth and Subbuteo makes an
appearance [brief description: for the younger generations this is a football
game played on a table where you have to flick your players a certain amount of
times trying to score a goal or deny the goal.]
Character
developments and performances; these character developments and the vast
majority of the performances are the best solid versions of what they are meant
to be, but also as it relates to our lead partnership; head scratching would be
probably the best way to describe it; because at no point, no one has the
epitome that Ashworth has made football his entire life because as we see
throughout this film; his father isn't consistently there and his mother is a
working woman and we don't know too much about his sister; so he puts
everything into something that can't or won't leave him and now he is
struggling to deal with life away from football, even though in narration
towards the very closing stages of this movie he makes reference to moving on
and basically a coming-of-age acknowledgement happens; so on one hand we have
all this deep meaning character developments that should be discussed between boyfriend
and girlfriend; that isn't as it relates to Ashworth or to be fair vice versa
as it relates Hughes and her/their developing situation but isn't and then
right at the end of the film Ashworth coming-of-age thing; pretty much this
little garbage a hot steaming pile of garbage and whilst I am being honest Firth and/or Gemmell on-screen chemistry; was
and is void of any actual on-screen chemistry; you have a better chance of
rubbing two sticks together whilst swimming in the Grand Canyon to make a spark
to make fire then these two actually creating a spark which a spark of
chemistry can grow from.
This film receives: 4/10, this film is mixed; as I have been making
reference to this is one of the most frustrating films I have seen for some
time and as a football fan I didn't take too kindly to Ashworth saying
something to the effect of nothing will change in reference to the infamous
Hillsborough tragedy; okay because this film is based around this time on;
include it, but you don't have to be a complete penis about it and yes this
contributed to this marking as well there is an on-going seen underneath the
closing credits.
