I've liked other movies based on Nick Hornby books (High Fidelity, About a Boy). I saw the American "Fever Pitch" before I discovered it was a Nick Hornby story, and I thought that movie was pretty tepid, so I got the British version starring Colin Firth. I thought I would be in for a treat, but the movie was seriously lacking.
I mainly felt that the two main characters were both thoroughly unlikable. I could not see any reason why these two people fell in love. We were given few (I'm hard pressed to remember even one) scene in which they were not bickering, nagging or generally disrespecting each other. There was no chemistry between the two of them, and neither character's personality seemed to benefit from contact with the other person. It seemed absolutely false to me. Paul seemed to have no capacity to enjoy life at all, even when Arsenal was doing well. Sarah ceaselessly nagged Paul about aspects of his personality that she was well aware of before they got together. They were both uninteresting and charmless. I normally like Colin Firth, but his big soulful eyes were not enough to carry this character.
It also felt as though the movie had been cut down from a longer runtime. There were awkward progressions from scene to scene and elements that were partially developed, then abandoned. In a montage near the end, Paul and Sarah are seen frolicking together, but it happens in the midst of a time when they are separated. Indeed, the very next time Paul encounters Sarah at school, he coldly greets her with a perfunctory "Ms. Hughes." It doesn't make sense.
The film cheaps out on the football action - I can't think of a single shot of pro football that was filmed for this movie. The only time we see actual football (apart from the kids games and an amateur match) are on TV. There were times when I expected the camera to cut to the on-field action, but it never did. The net result is that the movie feels cheap and under-imagined.
Hornby is credited with writing the screenplay for this film, and I don't think he did a particularly good job of adapting his talents to the medium. I also think the directing was mediocre. A good director could have helped the production overcome the problems this film suffers from, but the direction here seemed limited to a workmanlike effort to cover the action and nothing more.
I guess I'll have to read the book to get a good experience with this story. This film is seriously disappointing.
I mainly felt that the two main characters were both thoroughly unlikable. I could not see any reason why these two people fell in love. We were given few (I'm hard pressed to remember even one) scene in which they were not bickering, nagging or generally disrespecting each other. There was no chemistry between the two of them, and neither character's personality seemed to benefit from contact with the other person. It seemed absolutely false to me. Paul seemed to have no capacity to enjoy life at all, even when Arsenal was doing well. Sarah ceaselessly nagged Paul about aspects of his personality that she was well aware of before they got together. They were both uninteresting and charmless. I normally like Colin Firth, but his big soulful eyes were not enough to carry this character.
It also felt as though the movie had been cut down from a longer runtime. There were awkward progressions from scene to scene and elements that were partially developed, then abandoned. In a montage near the end, Paul and Sarah are seen frolicking together, but it happens in the midst of a time when they are separated. Indeed, the very next time Paul encounters Sarah at school, he coldly greets her with a perfunctory "Ms. Hughes." It doesn't make sense.
The film cheaps out on the football action - I can't think of a single shot of pro football that was filmed for this movie. The only time we see actual football (apart from the kids games and an amateur match) are on TV. There were times when I expected the camera to cut to the on-field action, but it never did. The net result is that the movie feels cheap and under-imagined.
Hornby is credited with writing the screenplay for this film, and I don't think he did a particularly good job of adapting his talents to the medium. I also think the directing was mediocre. A good director could have helped the production overcome the problems this film suffers from, but the direction here seemed limited to a workmanlike effort to cover the action and nothing more.
I guess I'll have to read the book to get a good experience with this story. This film is seriously disappointing.