Three geeks and some pretty women

Rating: 6/10 (18 May 2008)

Befitting its title, music plays a big part in this movie, both on the soundtrack and in the story which has three thirty-something, vinyl-obsessed geeks running a music store in Chicago. Rob (John Cusack) is the owner of the store and he is assisted by Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black). Barry is loud, opinionated, and arrogant - if you don't agree with him, then you are beneath contempt. Barry would rather insult a customer who asks for an unapproved record than make a sale. Dick is sensitive, shy, scholarly, and his appreciation for pop-music is sincere. Louiso and Black create vividly articulated, delightful characters.
The central plot line has Rob questioning why he has had such bad luck with women and he details his five most significant break-ups. He winds up talking to the camera much of the time. Some may find this intimate and appealing, but it didn't work for me - I would rather have had his neuroses worked out on screen than recited to us. Somewhat early on Rob asks himself the question, "How does an average guy like me become the number one lover-man in his particular postal district? He's grumpy, he's broke, he hangs out with the musical moron twins." This question is the one I kept asking about Rob throughout the film and not being able to answer it is the reason I had a hard time swallowing the story. The break-ups Rob describes are with some very attractive women, the most recent being with Laura (the very fetching Iben Hjejle). I completely understood why Laura (a successful lawyer) would move on from Rob and I could not see what she saw in him that made her come back.
The music and supporting cast are outstanding and they supply most of the appeal. There are lots of good lines. Consider Barry's reference to the name of his rock group, "We're no longer called Sonic Death Monkey. We're on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Overdrive, but just for tonight, we are Barry Jive and his Uptown Five." And what a kick it was for me to see that Black can actually sing. But the movie needs to be carried by Cusack and whenever he was on screen I tended to lose interest.
At a macro level this is a cautionary tale about trying to turn one's passions into a business. You are most frequently going to be disappointed by the tastes of your customers and will wind up playing to a small audience and having a hell of a time making a go of it.