Themes: Fathers and Sons, Baseball Players, Success is the Best Revenge
Main Cast: Freddie Prinze, Jr., Jessica Biel, Fred Ward, Jason Gedrick, Brittany Murphy, Matthew Lillard
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
This blend of sports and youthful romantic comedy is from director Michael Tollin, who previously produced the sports drama Varsity Blues (1999). Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as Ryan Dunne, a ballplayer who's spending the summer as a pitcher for the famed, highly prestigious Cape Cod League, a non-professional farm team that has turned out numerous baseball legends. Ryan's under special pressure on a number of fronts. He's the first local boy to earn a slot in the league in years, and his blue-collar status earns him the enmity of a hot-shot college teammate, Eric Van Leemer (Corey Pearson). Although he's backed up by his best friend and team catcher Billy Brubaker (Matthew Lillard), Ryan adds more stress to his life by embarking on an affair with a beautiful, wealthy young Vassar graduate, Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel), who's spending the summer on the Cape with her parents. Tenley is facing her own crisis as her father (Bruce Davison) pressures her to move to San Francisco and work with her uncle, though she'd rather remain in the East and become an architect. Summer Catch is the third onscreen teaming of Prinze and Lillard, and also stars Brian Dennehy, Wilmer Valderrama, Jason Gedrick, Fred Ward, and Brittany Murphy. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
Review
The Freddie Prinze Jr. movie has become a category unto itself: constructed with basic genre efficiency and zero sticking power. That's a good way to summarize Summer Catch, an agreeable enough but totally predictable baseball romance that has all the impact of a foul-out to the catcher. Because audiences have grown bored of this lazy enslavement to the status quo, Summer Catch took a beanball to the head from critics. Obviously inspired by Bull Durham -- to the point of having a pitcher don ladies' undergarments, a la Tim Robbins' Nuke LaLoosh -- Summer Catch does occasionally scrounge together some of that film's baseball-in-the-sticks charm. The renowned Cape Cod league for college players is a nice focal point for this brand of sentimentality, and the characters are not all egregious stereotypes. Prinze is fine, perennial collaborator Matthew Lillard is plenty goofy, and Jessica Biel is just enough more than a pretty face to connect. But it all adds up to very little, because nothing feels challenging, funny, or memorable -- just tepid and safe. One can barely mount the energy to curse the film up and down for its faults, because no one moment inspires howls of disbelief. It's just vanilla -- not the good kind of vanilla, but rather, the stale pint at the back of the freezer case, ignored and unseen. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Fred Ward - Sean Dunne; Brittany Murphy - Dede Mulligan; Gabriel Mann - Auggie; Bruce Davison - Rand Parrish; Brian Dennehy - Coach John Schiffner; Marc Blucas - Miles Dalrymple; Wilmer Valderrama - Mickey Dominguez; Corey Pearson - Eric Van Leemer; Christian Kane - Dale Robin; Cedric Pendleton - Calvin Knight; Jed Rhein - Pete; Zena Grey - Katie Parrish; Curt Gowdy - Himself; Pat Burrell - Himself; Dave Collins - Himself; Doug Glanville - Himself; Grif Griffis - Himself; Jeff Kellogg - Himself; Mike Liberthal - Himself; Mike Aaron - Himself; Mike Lieberthal - Mike Lieberthal; Dick Allen - Scout in Black Hat; Randi Layne - Vivi Parrish; Traci Dinwiddie - Lauren; Susan Gardner - Marjorie; Courtney Driver - Jenna; Jack Baun - Chris Hunt; Tammy Christine Arnold - Vassar Graduate; Tim Lucason - Hyannis Batter; Kenny Gasperson - Statistician; Mark Robert Ellis - Umpire; Herbert W. Gains - Angry Fan; Thaddeus Hill - Coach Sully; Brock Keene - Chatham Pitcher; Mike Ribaudo - Chatham A #1; Matt Hobbie - Chatham A #2; John C. McGinley - Talent Scout
Credit
Juliet A. Polcsa - Costume Designer, Mike Tollin - Director, Harvey Rosenstock - Editor, Herbert W. Gains - Executive Producer, George Fenton - Composer (Music Score), John D. Kretschmer - Production Designer, Tim Suhrstedt - Cinematographer, Brian Robbins - Producer, Mike Tollin - Producer, Sam Weisman - Producer, John Gatins - Screenwriter, Kevin Falls - Screenwriter
Freddie Prinze Jr. plays Ryan Dunne, a local baseball prospect who gets an opportunity to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Chatham Athletics. Dunne was born and raised in Chatham, Massachusetts, and dreams of playing in the major leagues. He helps his dad with his landscaping business and takes care of Veteran's Field, where the Chatham A's play. Ryan falls in love with Tenley Parrish (Jessica Biel), whose family vacations on the Cape on Shore Road in Chatham. Ryan is distracted by Tenley, and feels a lot of pressure from scouts, family, the Parish family, and friends.
