Big Fan (2009)

Director: Robert D. Siegel                               Writer: Robert D. Siegel
Film Score: Philip Watts                                  Cinematography: Michael Simmonds
Starring: Patton Oswalt, Kevin Corrigan, Matt Servitto and Michael Rapaport

This is a film that tries to do a number of things and, unfortunately, fails at nearly all of them. On the surface, Big Fan seems to have a fascinating premise, which is why I took a chance on it. The idea of the rabid, modern day, sports fan has yet to be seriously explored in film, and the addition of Patton Oswalt as the protagonist made it that much more intriguing. But at the end of the day the central idea of the film, of obsession that leads to a cognitive break, has already been done in a much more powerful way in One Hour Photo starring Robin Williams. And in comparison, the sports film winds up being a pale imitation that disappoints in every way. Surprisingly, the choice of Oswalt as the protagonist turns out to be a poor choice. While he brings a certain comedic element that, again, would emulate the crossover of Williams going to drama, he doesn’t quite pull it off. While Williams exudes malevolence in his role, Oswalt as the schlub who still lives at home with his mother is more pathetic than anything else. In addition, writer-director Robert Siegel brings very little to his character study in the way of interest or to his story in terms of plot and before too long the film simply becomes boring.

Patton Oswalt plays a parking lot attendant who sits in his booth all evening collecting money and listening to sports radio. He is a dedicated New York Giants fan who is a regular caller to a local New York talk show hosted by Scott Ferrall. Oswalt spends his evening writing out what he wants to say when he gets on, and has a running feud with a caller from Philadelphia, Michael Rapaport. Oswalt’s best friend is Kevin Corrigan, another Giants fan who at least seems to have an apartment of his own. The two of them go to the home games on Sunday, but sit in the parking lot of Giants stadium and watch the game on TV. One night in their neighborhood on Staten Island they see the Giants’ star linebacker Jonathan Hamm filling up his SUV at a gas station and decide to follow him. The star’s first stop is at a drug house on the island, then he goes to a strip club in Manhattan. Oswalt and Corrigan follow him inside, buy a drink for him, then get up the nerve to approach him. When Oswalt lets it slip that they saw him buying drugs Hamm goes crazy and beats Oswalt severely enough that he has to go to the hospital. It takes several days for Oswalt to wake up after a brain operation and when he does he finds out the Giants have lost their last game because Hamm has been suspended during the investigation.

From this point on Oswalt gets nothing but pressure from everyone around him. Police detective Matt Servitto wants to know everything that happened that night, while Oswalt’s lawyer brother, Gino Cafarelli, wants to sue the football player for millions, and at the same time his mother becomes fed up with him living at home and wants him to pursue a real career and a life of his own. Add to that a losing streak by the Giants, which threatens to eliminate them from the playoffs, and it’s not long before Oswalt snaps. The focus of the piece is clearly on Oswalt, and director Siegel’s camera setups favor close-ups much of the time. What he’s trying for is a sense of the claustrophobia of Oswalt’s life, but before long the technique wears thin, especially as there is very little in the way of introspection that we get from the protagonist, even when he’s with his best friend. Had the ending gone a different way it might have saved the film, something on the order of Talk Radio, but in hewing so close to the idea of One Hour Photo the comparisons are decidedly to its disadvantage. There are other ideas the film could have explored, money, fame, family, and the role of sports in society, but they are never even touched upon, which ultimately makes the film that much more vacuous. As a result, Big Fan is just a big flop.