Patton Oswalt & Kevin Corrigan

Films without end have been made about the heroes of sport, but who speaks for the fans?

Who especially speaks for the fanatic, the zealot who devotes an entire life to a team with the single-minded intensity of a monk meditating in a cave?

"Big Fan" does, exceptionally well.

Written and directed by Robert Siegel and starring Patton Oswalt, "Big Fan" is a poignant, dead-on examination of a crisis in the life of the most die-hard of die-hard New York Giants football fans.

Its situations can be outrageous, but its sense of the core reality it describes is impeccable.

This is not easily done, because the outsize passions of fans such as the film's Paul Aufiero can make others uncomfortable.

"Big Fan" neither denigrates nor idealizes Paul; it may not even like him, but it does respect the ferocity of those convictions.

Siegel, who gives himself a brief cameo as an obnoxious journalist, is the writer of "The Wrestler," and both films share a feeling for the people who live on the fringes of professional sports. As he did for Mickey Rourke with Randy "The Ram" Robinson, Siegel has written a killer role for his leading man.

Oswalt, best known for stand-up comedy, TV's "The King of Queens" and his turn as the voice of Remy in "Ratatouille," may be unlikely to get an Oscar nomination, but he deserves one.

A 36-year-old resident of Staten Island who watches his team on a TV in the stadium parking lot, Paul is introduced at his day job, manning the booth at a parking garage. What he really lives for, however, are his New York Giants in general and being a call-in voice on "The Zone," a late-night sports talk radio program, in particular. His nemesis is Philadelphia Phil (Michael Rapaport), a caustic Eagles fan and one of the legion of "cheese steak bozos" Paul cannot abide.

Because "The Zone" is a late-night show, Paul also has to contend with a difficulty closer to home, and that is his light-sleeping mother, Theresa (Marcia Jean Kurtz).

Theresa and Paul regularly tear into each other like a mother-son version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Though he loves all the Giants, Paul's particular hero is marauding linebacker and five-time all-pro Quantrell Bishop (Jonathan Hamm). So imagine his state of mind when he and his friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) catch a glimpse of Bishop at a Staten Island gas station and decide on impulse to follow him no matter where it leads.

The ultimate destination turns out to be a Manhattan strip club where things end badly for all concerned. It's at this point that "Big Fan" takes hold, as Paul, pressured by everyone, has to decide whom to keep the faith with, has to figure out if he is willing to pay the price for what he believes.

These religious metaphors are not chosen at random, because it is the achievement of "Big Fan" to let us see Paul not necessarily as a loser but as someone who has found something that sustains him. When he says of his conventional siblings, "I don't want what they've got," he's telling the biggest truth he knows.

 

"Big Fan" Movie Trailer

Paul Aufiero (PATTON OSWALT), a 35-year-old parking garage attendant from Staten Island, is the self-described "world's biggest New York Giants fan." He lives at home with his mother (MARCIA JEAN KURTZ), spending his off hours calling in to local sports-radio station 760 The Zone, where he rants and raves in support of his beloved team, often against his mysterious on-air rival, Eagles fan Philadelphia Phil (MICHAEL RAPAPORT). His family berates him for doing nothing with his life, but they don't understand the depth of his love of the Giants or the responsibility his fandom carries.

 

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MPAA rating: R (for language and some sexuality).

Running time: 1:25.

Starring: Patton Oswalt (Paul); Kevin Corrigan (Sal); Michael Rapaport (Philadelphia Phil); Marcia Jean Kurtz (Theresa).

Written and directed by Robert Siegel; produced by Jean Kouremetis and Elan Bogarin. A First Independent Pictures release.

 

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