nice background, weak foreground story

Rating: Null/10 (24 September 2000)

Are modern movie romances stuck in a rut? Even the best ones lately  and `High Fidelity' certainly fits into that category  seem to feature characters who find themselves mired in a kind of fashionable self-centered angst that has simply become too predictable and familiar to sustain much audience interest anymore. Infidelity, the fear of commitment, the never-ending struggle to find the perfect balance between sex and love  certainly these issues exist in exelsis in real relationships and these movies merely reflect that reality. Yet, how many times can one watch films built around these themes without eventually becoming as inured and jaded as the lost-souled characters who comprise their worlds? Could it be that  after years of carbon copy retreads - the romantic film genre has simply played itself out?
Foe my money, the modern romantic comedy reached its apotheosis way back in 1977 with Woody Allen's landmark masterpiece, `Annie Hall,' undoubtedly the funniest and most keenly observant study of a modern day relationship. Since that time, virtually every movie romance has borrowed heavily from that earlier film's style, theme and substance. `High Fidelity' is no exception. In this film, John Cusack delivers a high-energy performance as Rob Gordon, a 30-something Chicago record shop owner whose life seems to have come to a standstill. Not only does he work in an environment guaranteed to keep him mired in the past  his shop sells vinyl records rather than CD's  but his most recent girlfriend has decided to walk out on him because of what she perceives to be his lack of ambition to move ahead in life. Confronted with yet another failed relationship, Rob decides to go back and contact several earlier partners and discover why it is that he always seems to be left out in the cold.
`High Fidelity' is at its most amusing and likeable when it concentrates on the milieu of the vinyl record shop and the minions who haunt it, and less interesting when it focuses on the romantic travails of its main character. Jack Black steals the film with his hilarious portrayal of Barry, a cocky music snob who would rather insult a customer whose taste he finds objectionable than make a profit by selling the said offender the execrable product for which he is asking. Screenwriters D. V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg astutely zero in on this strange esoteric world where a person's innate value as a human being is determined by the kind of music he or she happens to like. The scenarists and director Stephen Frears demonstrate a truly genuine affection for these socially backward losers who have convinced themselves that they alone hold the key to determining musical greatness and  by extension - the meaning of life itself.
It is when the focus in `High Fidelity' moves from background to foreground that the film loses much of its uniqueness and passion. Rob's romantic obsessions simply mirror those of far too many characters in recent similar romantic comedies. How many more self-absorbed, whining, commitment-phobic romantic leads can we handle? But `High Fidelity' borrows not merely its themes, but much of its style from `Annie Hall' as well. Like Allen's character in that film, Rob often turns directly to the camera and addresses the audience with running commentary monologues that are never quite as witty or profound as the filmmakers undoubtedly intend them to be. In another example of stylistic cribbing, Frears also occasionally interrupts the realistic flow of the action by intercutting fantasy sequences, one of which involves a guest appearance by none other than Bruce Springsteen himself (shades of Marshall McLuhan's cameo turn in `Annie Hall').
Frears has assembled a youthful, attractive cast for the occasion including Lisa Bonet, Sara Gilbert, Lili Taylor and Natasha Gregson Wagner. The fact that some of these performers have had very little screen time accorded them in the film obviously implies that they may have signed onto the project as a labor of love. The same could probably be said for Joan Cusack, but really must she and her brother co-star in EVERY movie together? I'm certainly not opposed to sibling devotion  but isn't it time they cut themselves loose from this rather strange tie that binds them?
Like so many films, `High Fidelity' tends to concentrate on its majors when its minors are so much more interesting. It is certainly a likeable enough film - but only when Jack Black is up-front and center stage does it ever really soar into comic delirium.