Charming, nostalgic, romantic. A fine and underrated film. Better, IMO, than its American counterpart, though both are worth seeing.

Colin Firth and Ruth Gemmell deliver charismatic, memorable individual performances and have wonderful chemistry. It's unfortunate she never became more famous--since this, there's been a small film here, a television guest spot there, nothing big.

Nick Hornby wrote the screenplay, adaptating his own Arsenal F.C.-themed memoir. Hornby's screenplay is hilarious and poignant, often at the same time. And he, of course, has a unique and deep understanding of the pop culture obsessive's mind. People who lose sleep when Arsenal (or the Red Sox) lose a game. People who consider seeing a film an almost religious experience. People to whom a question such as "What's your favorite Smiths song then?" is serious business. Hornby is such a person and his novels and screenplays tend to be a dissection of and love letter to such personality types.

A-

I should read the book.

quaint and dated

Automatic A for being about Arsenal.

The book is great.

This is such a delightful film that I'm kind of annoyed with myself that it took me 26 years to see it. I absolutely loved it, laughed throughout, and related to it quite a bit. Even if the specific nostalgic cues aren't from my life I could still appreciate them for what they were, and the setting of the late 80s is much the same as the 90s anyway so it was lovely to be dropped back into the period I grew up in. The clothes, the cars, the signage, just the general way of life. It's quinessentially English, and not in a Pride and Prejudice way but in a London's Burning or The Full Monty way - it's why they are such hits. They have that realism of picking out motivations and quirks from the real people and making a story out of them. I also could totally relate to the relationship a guy has with his football team. I've since grown out of that but I remember being intensely invested in football in my teenage years and early 20s. I would be upset and quiet and moody if my team lost. And I can also relate to the transition from hobbies to what really matters, and the juggling one has to do, the internal arguments one has, etc.

It's great as a romantic comedy, but will obviously always be remember as a football film, and a specific club's football film too. When Saturday Comes does Sheffield United, Green Street does West Ham (lol), and Fever Pitch does Arsenal, and this is by far the best of the football films (excluding Escape to Victory, of course).

Now I've got to see the American remake. I know I'll be disappointed (can't stand Fallon), but it can't hurt to see.