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High Fidelity
Review
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 Americanisation, idiosyncrasies intact, thanks to John
Cusack's inimitable charm and a nimble, nifty screenplay (co-written 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 non-stop 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.
Languages
English plus subtitles in English, English for the hearing impaired, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Hebrew, Greek.