Minor key movie - but funny because it is all true

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2004)

A thirty something college dropout manages an almost-broke second hand record store in Chicago and laments (straight to camera) about loves found, lost and re-found against the background of his first love - pop music.
Based on a classic book that was actually based in London this makes good use of John Cusack's sense of the droll and a small cast of likeable losers for whom he is the low-rent king.
Equal thanks that it also has Jack Black as the smartass record store employee (paid for three days - turns up for six, therefore unsackable!) who doesn't have a life outside of vinyl - or so it seems.
This is a bit of different love story film because it surprises you. Girls are not just sitting by the phone waiting for the boy to call, indeed they have careers, interests and agendas. They might even be ahead in life.
This is not a physical comedy, more a sound comedy - the mental torture of listening to Katrina and the Waves (Walking On Sunshine) at ultra high volume was the best joke of the whole movie. Closely followed by a cameo from a well known superstar.
The great thing is that nothing really happens. No one is going to change much. This isn't a journey movie or if it is it is on a circular track. Cusack is merely learning that a cake once eaten disappears and that the things that matter in life and attract you to people are often trivial.
Credit must go to book author Hornby who is one of life's great introspectionists, he says out loud (or rather in print) what we really think and feel and when we hear it our laugh is the laugh of recognition. This work is not as good as his first novel "Fever Pitch" (about football), but works better as a film.
High Fidelity is a small movie about big things. There is more to it than meets the eye, you think about it later and spot the central characters in real life. The central moral is that records and hobbies are great and let us all enjoy them for what they are, but they are not something we can put our arms around on a cold night or share feelings and emotions with.