Farrellys win with ‘Fever Pitch’

I was watching ESPN’s SportsCenter on Sunday morning, which is something that – as a former sportswriter – I tend to do while eating my breakfast cereal. And not for the first time did I notice just how much these guys stretch to get a feature story.

One was a typical Chris Connelly piece about the late golfer Moe Norman, who was arguably the best Canadian golfer despite suffering from … autism! And, OK, the story is sad. But did Connelly have to milk every single milliliter of emotion out of it?

Slight digression: Whatever happened to Connelly? He started out his career with Rolling Stone, which whatever you might think about its relative merits was once a magazine that courted serious writing talent. Now you can find Connelly slobbering over Oscar runways like a junior Joan Rivers.

Anyway, besides making me nostalgic for “Tin Cup,” the Norman piece was accompanied by another one that – gird your loins – relived last year’s World Series run by the Boston Red Sox! There’s a story that hasn’t been done to death, right?

All of which brings me to this: the movie “Fever Pitch,” which uses the improbable 2004 Sox story as the backdrop to an even more improbable romance. It stars Drew Barrymore, doing her usual cute thing as a workaholic ad-something- or-other (I never did figure out what her job was) who falls for a middle- school geography teacher played by Jimmie Fallon (“Saturday Night Live” alumnus) who has his own obsession: the Red Sox.

He loves the Sox so much that not only has he missed nary a game in 23 years, but he’s decorated his whole apartment in Sox paraphernalia – posters, pennants, bobble-heads, gloves, mitts, jerseys and more.

So the stage is set, obsession vs. obsession, will against will. The question: Can the fact that, in most other respects, these two are made for each other win out? Not too original (especially based on the fact that it’s a remake of a 1997 British film starring Colin Firth who directs his love toward the Arsenal soccer club), but that’s OK. Because it works.

Co-directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly made their most adult film to date by mostly getting out of Nick Hornby’s way. The Brit, author of books that have been adapted into such successful films as “High Fidelity” and “About a Boy,” writes books that boast just the right blend of romance, humor and bittersweet struggle. Whether the screenplays are written by the likes of the teams responsible for “High Fidelity” (directed by Stephen Frears) or “About a Boy” (co-directed by Chris and Paul Weitz), Hornby’s books make both good box office and good viewing. No small feat.

There are sports movies that are cheesy and enjoyable, just as there are romances that work the same way. It’s not often that the two genres blend together and still stay adult, provide enough laughs, maybe evoke a tear or two and yet refrain from dipping into the dugout of standard clichés typical of both.

“Fever Pitch” may deserve to be mentioned on SportsCenter, but Chris Connelly should stay clear. This is, as ESPN viewers know, Kenny Mayne territory.

Mountain of fire

Teachers tend to assign projects to their students and hope for the best. Sometimes the students come through, and sometimes they don’t.

Ron Heiss experienced something rare during the filmmaking class he taught winter quarter: The veteran Spokane Community College instructor was presented with a 47 minute documentary film of professional-grade quality.

That film, “Back into the Fire: Mt. St. Helens – A Documentary,” showed twice on March 18 at SCC. And filmmakers David Carlson and Ron Wickenhagen hope to screen it again at SCC on May 18, the 25th anniversary of the Mount St. Helens eruption – and maybe even at the Coldwater Ridge Visitors Center, which overlooks the volcano.

Carlson dreamed up the project in late December and began making phone calls. He proposed it as something the class could do, but he ended up working only with Wickenhagen, who photographed and edited; his wife, Nina Carlson, who was the assistant director; and Abe Glubrecht, who did assorted crew duties. Shooting began the third week of January, and the film was ready to show less than eight weeks later.

Carlson, 33, is an “aspiring vulcanologist.” Wickenhagen, 23, plans on transferring to Eastern Washington University to pursue a career in filmmaking.

Whatever their futures, both are proud of the film they ended up making.

“We were trying to get the human side,” Carlson says. “We were faced with having to put the boring scientific stuff in it.”

As for Heiss, well, he’s happy, too. And impressed.

“This is easily the best student project I’ve seen since I’ve taught this class,” he says.