The British "football" played in Fever Pitch is better known as "soccer" to Americans, but while the words are different, the feelings a sports fan has for his or her favorite team are universal. It's this quality that Fever Pitch captures perfectly. If viewers can accept the idea that a diehard soccer fan would even have to consider the dilemma of Paul Ashworth (Colin Firth) -- choosing a wife and child over a seat to the Big Game -- then they are going to enjoy the grittily realistic, painfully funny complications that Paul is compelled to manage in his life. If, on the other hand, such a choice is not even remotely familiar to one's manner of thinking, see Pitch anyway to open a window onto the narrow-minded, lunatic world of sports fanatics. With its superbly controlled acting (Ruth Gemmell could be Emma Thompson's younger sister), its arch period settings (there are long flashbacks to the 1960s and '70s), and its convincingly constructed examination of one man's fanaticism to a team (which has its origins in his relationship with his estranged father), it is perhaps the best sports movie made from a fan's perspective. The film's sports aspects, coupled with its romantic elements, create a film with broad appeal. And if nothing else, the soundtrack includes stellar period hits by the Pretenders, the Who, Fine Young Cannibals, and the Smiths.