High Fidelity (2000)

Transplanted from England to the not-so-mean streets of Chicago, the screen adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-classic novel High Fidelity emerges unscathed from its Americanization, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (cowritten by Cusack). Early-thirtysomething Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a slacker who owns a vintage record shop, a massive collection of LPs, and innumerable top-five lists in his head. At the opening of the film, Rob recounts directly to the audience his all-time top-five breakups--which doesn't include his recent falling out with his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle), who has just moved out of their apartment. Thunderstruck and obsessed with Laura's desertion (but loath to admit it), Rob begins a quest to confront the women who instigated the aforementioned top-five breakups to find out just what he did wrong.

Low on plot and high on self-discovery, High Fidelity takes a good 30 minutes or so to find its groove (not unlike Cusack's Grosse Pointe Blank), but once it does, it settles into it comfortably and builds a surprisingly touching momentum. Rob is basically a grown-up version of Cusack's character in Say Anything (who was told "Don't be a guy--be a man!"), and if you like Cusack's brand of smart-alecky romanticism, you'll automatically be won over (if you can handle Cusack's almost-nonstop talking to the camera). Still, it's hard not to be moved by Rob's plight. At the beginning of the film he and his coworkers at the record store (played hilariously by Jack Black and Todd Louiso) seem like overgrown boys in their secret clubhouse; by the end, they've grown up considerably, with a clear-eyed view of life. Ably directed by Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons), High Fidelity features a notable supporting cast of the women in Rob's life, including the striking, Danish-born Hjejle, Lisa Bonet as a sultry singer-songwriter, and the triumphant triumvirate of Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Rob's ex-girlfriends. With brief cameos by Tim Robbins as Laura's new, New Age boyfriend and Bruce Springsteen as himself. --Mark Englehart Amazon.com

I'll take the soundtrack instead

Rob Gordon (John Cusack) didn't exactly become what he wanted. He owns a vintage vinyl record shop and works it with a pair of oddball salespeople who are possibly more disenfranchised than he. His top career choice would have been writer for Rolling Stone Magazine, but there were four others as well.

Now, his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) is moving out of their apartment. She was five on his Top Five list of most devastating breakups. Rob believes girls 1-4 somehow set him up for failure for this relationship. So, he contacts the ones who got away to find out why.

It took me a while to warm up to character, story, etc, but my husband got it. This may be the male equivalent of the chick flick. Guy flick? Fellow film? For some reason, none of them have the same ring. While I didn't quite get the film, I'd highly recommend the soundtrack. Great tunes!

Rebecca Kyle, December 2008

December 29, 2008

He's grumpy, he's broke, he hangs out with the musical moron twins...

2000 brought us High Fidelity, the movie adaptation of the popular book by Nick Hornby of the same title. The tale of Rob Gordon(John Cusak) a socially awkward, music elitist who owns a small vinyl record store.

When his live-in girlfriend Laura(Iben Hjejle) leaves him, Rob begins to further to wallow in his own sadness by relieving his top five heartbreaks and rejections. From his first junior high girlfriend of three days to the woman who can never be single but left him for a better option, Rob is set on deciphering exactly what it is about him that always leaves him rejected.

Perhaps a slow and boring plot to some, High Fidelity is carried if nothing more, by the brilliance and pathetic portrayal of Cusak. The way this man can ramble, list and explain must be an art!

Not to mention a brilliant soundtrack boasting hits by The Kinks, The Velvet Underground, and Stereolab; they all fit the tales of Rob Gordon's past rejections perfectly.

"It would be nice to think that since I was 14, times have changed. Relationships have become more sophisticated. Females less cruel. Skins thicker. Instincts more developed. But there seems to be an element of that afternoon in everything that's happened to me since. All my romantic stories are a scrambled version of that first one."

For the music elitists, those of us who still search for a favorite disk on vinyl, or anyone who still evaluates their past, mistakes and all.
November 2, 2008

TOP TWO MISTAKES IN HIGH FIDELITY

"High Fidelity" is on my top-five all-time desert island movie list. After watching it for the millionth time, I came across two errors. First, at the beginning of the movie (Chapter 2), Laura leaves, Rob slams the door, and then tells us his top-five break-ups in chronological order, as follows: Alison Ashmore, Penny Hardwick, Jackie Alden, Charlie Nicholson, and Sarah Kendrew. Charlie Nicholson was actually number three, and Jackie Alden number four. (Rob's relationship with Jackie, you will recall, was a direct result of his entanglement with Charlie.) This error is corrected in Chapter four, when Rob correctly states that Charlie is number three.

The second miscue occurs in Chapter 10. This is the scene where Rob is cowering under his covers, imagining Laura having sex with Ian. Rob then turns to us and says that Jackie Alden was number five on his all-time list, that his affair with Ms. Alden had no effect on his life, and that he was glad it ended. Thus, by Chapter 10, the phantom-like Sarah Kendrew has vanished.

Anyway, I love this movie!
July 17, 2008

horrid

I'm not a Cusack fan. At best he's tolerable.

THis movie was boring and painful to watch. It's about a lame depressed guy and his annoying friends with awful taste in music. was it supposed to be a comedy?
July 11, 2008

Charming....Really! Sensitivity Warning, though.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. John Cusack is his usual charming man-next-door with issues. Jack Black plays his standard stick-it-to-the-man rebel with a heart. Three men with extreme and unnecessary music knowledge spend their days and nights together bantering, arguing and not living their lives. The "non-musical" are excluded from their club, and they even have issues with each other.

Throw a break-up with a long-term girlfriend in the mix and watch as the world begins to crash for Rob (Cusack). In his attempt to deal with reality, he decides, in lad-lit-style narration, to go back and revisit where he went wrong. He consults his Five Worst Break-ups and attempts to discover why he has such lousy luck with women.

Warning to the sensitive....and I hesitated to rent this because of the R rating for sex and language...you never really know how bad it's going to be. There are cloaked sex scenes, and one nightmare/daydream sex scene that is pretty brutal. The F-word is a main player but is not as tossed around as often as it could be.

Overall, there is clever dialogue and great insight into the way people think. I loved the exploration and growth that the main characters chose instead of the path of continued dysfunction and stagnancy. I laughed out loud several times.

If you love Cusack or Black and/or love films like About a Boy, and can handle above stated issues, I think you might find much to like in High Fidelity. June 22, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...