Is this the new Green Day?

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2016)

Rob Gordon is stuck in middle-age purgatory, constantly flitting from relationship to relationship when asked to take an step forward and grow. Like Woody Allen's characters in his great romantic comedies, who couldn't help from making a joke of all but the gravest of situations, he segments and designates his life by his love of music. He and his two friends share this talent of musical elitism and snobbery; they spend all day berating the poor taste of their customers, they immediately try to define any real life scenario with the best song to fit, and then every now and again they even sell a record. But Stephen Frears isn't just playing the bad guy; Rob's passion for music, however snobbish, is authentic, and Frears finds a way to elicit not only humour out of it, but eventually good. They want to broaden the tastes of the wider public, and Cusack is so confident in his love for The Beta Band and their ability to turn heads and ears. When two youthful thieves run off with a bunch of records, they furiously give chase, before the confrontation turns into a hilarious argument about the poor taste of their stolen records. Frears plays this straight, making it funnier, but also seeding the roots of Rob's passion and eventual discovery of the pair's talent. Naturally, he wants to help foster and let others hear it too.
Cusack is the perfect choice. He is a product of his early career, the teen movies, and he brings this experience and baggage into his portrayal of Rob. Much of the exposition has him talking and facing the camera, narrating his own story, as if he was one of those directors or writers who make themselves the main and best character. So the frames close in on his story, the backgrounds vanish, and Cusack motions and pours out his life story for the audience. His voice-over is angry, volatile, unable to consider any perspective other than his own, and has self-depreciating quality that swiftly sheds himself of any blame. Perplexed, he beings a journey of diving back into his past to discover exactly the reason for his failed relationships. When he meets an ex who is similarly despondent, he recognises the same signs of "sad, single person culture", but has no empathy. He is too high and mighty for that.
The best scenes of the film come from his back and forth with his most recent ex-girlfriend Laura, who has finally had enough and packed the bags. This is where Rob is at his most self-righteous, most unaware. The messy breakup process is very clearly painful for her to, but Rob is only concerned with himself, so he sabotages each encounter with her with crass, unimportant queries. He feels entitled to have a say in the negotiation of this period, so he assaults her with a barrage of requests and phone-calls, and because she is much nicer and more mature than him, she plays along. Rob seems to have picked out the score for the film himself; when it seems certain that they will not get back together, it croons with Velvet Underground. And in a moment which completely illustrates his lack of sensitivity and maturity, he jumps for joy to Queen's We Are the Champions, just because Laura has not yet consummated her next relationship. Very funny, and very sad indeed.
But of course they do eventually, and Rob, whose short-sightedness prevented him from seeing so, descends back into the mopey, 'the whole world is against me routine'. He calls her in the night, soaking in the rain and holding back tears, blubbering and trying to win her back. This act is so perfectly reminiscent of Cusack's iconic moment in Say Anything, holding the stereo aloft all night. The connection works because Cusack is no longer a teenager, but still held ransom by these teenage swings of emotion, so heart-wrenching he can barely function.
What prevents High Fidelity from being a great film is how it momentarily slips up into soppy, conventional romantic comedy territory. Much of the film is ruthless in its dissection of Rob's faults, but it all falls into place like a typical romance does when he and Laura get back together. Laura is barely a character here; she simply flops over for him, conveniently sweeping Ian aside to reward an undeserving Rob with sex. It so clearly feels like one of his 'cool' fantasies that I was begging for the scene to rewind. Instead the film acts like a broken record, skipping ahead of the implied complications to that sweet-toothed ending. It isn't a bad ending; there is nothing wrong with expecting Rob to pick up the pieces of his life and finally move forward in his relationship. But it does seem like a bit of a let off.